


"Here we are, no turn away now"

by you_are_my_Evangeline



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Black Hermione Granger, But nobody gets seriously wasted don't worry, Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), Canon-Typical Violence, Crushes, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Good Slytherins, Harry Potter is Not a Horcrux, Hogwarts, Hogwarts Fifth Year, Hogwarts House Sorting Ceremony, Hogwarts Inter-House Friendships, Hufflepuff Common Room, Jealousy, Love Triangles, M/M, Misunderstandings, Musical References, Parselmouth Harry Potter, Pining, Self-Indulgent, Set one year after the battle of Camp Half-Blood, Severus Snape Being a Bastard, Sirius Black Free from Azkaban, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin Raise Harry Potter, Slytherins listen to Muggle music, The Battle of Camp half-Blood happened in 2018, Underage Drinking, Voldemort is defeated before harry's fifth year, Written by a Slytherin, and they love it, but it's minor don't worry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:15:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 43,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23189098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/you_are_my_Evangeline/pseuds/you_are_my_Evangeline
Summary: “So, Ancient Greek Gods exist, all the myths we’ve always thought were legends are actually real, demigods are going to attend Hogwarts, and if we do something wrong, we could have the Gods’ fury set upon us?”“Exactly”.Minerva sat down heavily on the chair.I guess there’s no way we can have a normal year here at Hogwarts. School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, now open to demigods too.“Merlin help us”.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Calypso/Leo Valdez, Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Hermione Granger/Pansy Parkinson, Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace, Ron Weasley/Blaise Zabini, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 74
Kudos: 236





	1. Hecate's Plan

**Author's Note:**

> I live in Italy.  
> This quarantine's been killing me.
> 
> Enjoy!

“Here we are, no turn away now”

Chapter One

Hecate’s Plan

⸙

“Come on Percy, just give up already!” shouted Nico di Angelo, smirking and swinging his stygian iron sword into the air, bringing it down onto Percy’s sword.

The son of Poseidon laughed, clashing his celestial bronze sword onto Nico’s in return, waiting for the perfect moment to try to disarm the Italian.

“Just don’t kill each other, dumbheads!”.

They had been fighting for over half an hour under August’s burning heat at Camp Half-Blood. The sun was shining above their heads, painting the sky an unbelievably bright shade of blue. A light breeze blowing through the trees’ branches made the heat bearable, and carried through the air the sweet smell of freshly cut strawberries and the sound of careless laughter.

Summer at Camp had never felt so calm. It felt like they were just normal teenagers at a normal summer camp, without the threat of quests and wars lingering above them, leaving just the fun that spending all summer with your best friends can give.

Sure, they had sparring duels and lava walls and their own peculiar version of Capture the Flag, but closing his eyes, Percy could almost pretend to be a normal eighteen year old boy just enjoying his last year of summer camp before leaving for university.

That feeling lasted very little time, though. Opening his eyes again, it was indeed clear that Camp Half-Blood wasn’t a normal summer camp, and that everyone in it wasn’t normal at all. The previous year with the war against Gaea raging on he had barely set foot at Camp all year, save for when they had to fight the final battle, and was starting to forget what it looked like. Leo’s idea of showing pictures of Camp on the Argo II was certainly meant to be a positive reminder of what they were fighting for, but at the same time seeing photos of Camp when they were so far away from it actually gave him a great sense of nostalgia and melancholy. Percy did the best he could do to avoid looking at the pictures of the strawberry fields and the sword fighting arena scattered around the Argo II’s walls and as a result, he couldn’t help but feel as if he was forgetting all the little things that had made Camp look so magical to him in the first place, the first time he visited it.

After the Final Battle, Camp had been a mess. It had taken nearly three weeks of work to rebuild all the damaged cabins and to build other ones for the children of other minor divinities. But in the end, after a lot of hard work, Camp had begun to look like it was before the Battle.

“Percy. Di immortales, at least pretend to be invested in what we’re doing!” spat an annoyed Nico, dodging his last attempt at disarming him and swiftly steering his weapon towards Riptide’s blade, successfully disarming the son of Poseidon and ending the duel.

“That was awfully simple to do. Please don’t make me waste anymore of my time, if you want to fight, fight” said Nico, who was now wiping away the sweat on his forehead with the hem of his t-shirt and walking towards his boyfriend, Will Solace, who had been watching them duel.

“I have to admit it, Nico is right” said the son of Apollo, smirking in Percy’s direction, and passing Nico his water bottle.

“Seriously, you’ve kept me for half a hour under this terrible sun, risking sunstroke, just to give me that shitty ending? I’ll give y’all a 7 for trying, but really, y’all need to astonish me next time you duel, or I’m not your waterboy anymore”.

At that, Nico and Percy burst out laughing, ignoring the son of Apollo’s fuming face, demanding to be taken seriously.

All was, finally, well.

⸙⸙

There was a place on the other hand, where things were definitely not well.

And that place was Hecate’s quarters on Mount Olympus.

The Goddess of Magic was absently walking back and forth in her lavishly decorated chamber, muttering to herself in an annoyed fashion, once again mad with the Olympians.

“The nerve they have! They insist Greeks and Romans are too different to mingle, that their cultures would clash were they to meet, that they’d kill each other!  
And yet here they are, organising stupid exchange-programmes between their two Camps! They’ve been telling me for forever that just as Greeks and Romans could never get along, there was no point in even trying to get our demigod children to meet my other, more powerful children! Bullshit, I say! I’m done listening to their crappy opinions, done!”.

The Goddess stopped her pacing through the room, standing in front of her finely decorated mirror, looking at her reflection right in the eye. She smirked, her eyes full of mischief, an aura of power surrounding her figure.

“It’s time my children get the attention they deserve.”

⸙⸙⸙

Harry was finally enjoying the first death-threat-free summer of his life, and just repeating the phrase to himself sounded like a dream.

It felt strange, thinking that there was no evil Dark Lord wanting to kill him, no evil minions of his wanting to kill his friends and family.

Thanks to the Order, his warning about Lord Voldemort’s return had been heard, and Aurors from all over the Wizarding World came to help the members of the Order in the search for the Horcruxes. In the end, all the Horcruxes were destroyed in record-time and Voldemort defeated.

It really felt like a dream.

Harry sighed, learning from the alarm clock on his bedside table that it was 8:36 on a lazy Saturday in the middle of August. He sat up on his bed and reached for his glasses, stretching a little, still blanketed in the warm, numb feeling a good night sleep gives.

He lazily made his way downstairs to the kitchen, where he was sure to find Remus cooking breakfast like he did every Saturday morning.

Entering the kitchen door in fact, there was his co-godfather (as Sirius and himself always loved to call him), quietly humming a tune he didn’t recognise. As soon as Remus heard Harry walk through the door he turned his head to greet the boy.

“Harry, good morning!” said Moony, blowing a kiss in his direction. He was dressed in light blue pajamas decorated with tiny silvery stars, which were protected from getting stained by a creme-coloured apron.

“Morning Moony,” answered Harry, now seated on one of the kitchen chairs, not so patiently waiting for Remus to finish preparing breakfast.

As he absently glanced at the kitchen counter his stomach began to rumble painfully. Sunny side up eggs, sausages, toast with strawberry jam, chocolate chip biscuits and his personal favourite, treacle tart, were all sitting on the counter, waiting to be eaten.

Just when he felt his mouth actually water, Remus cast an exasperated look at him, slowly shaking his head with a dramatic flare.

“Okay then, since you clearly have no intention of helping me, go and wake Padfoot or we’re never going to eat before 10 a.m.”.

“Man of little faith, do you really think I’d make Harry wait ‘till 10 a.m. for breakfast, knowing how much of a feral beast he is if he doesn’t eat?”.

Remus laughed, turning his head again in the direction of the kitchen door, this time finding Sirius leaned on the jamb, smirking and checking him out from afar.

“Wow Moony, this _mise_ really brings out your unbelievably sweet eyes”.

“Shut up and sit down next to Harry, _Don Giovanni_ , breakfast is ready anyway”.

As he was savouring his eggs, Harry couldn’t help but feeling hopeful.

Being hopeful in the past didn’t really get him far, but he was sure that his 5th year would be the year his bad luck finally vanished.

He had a family, friends, a school he was looking forward to returning to and no one trying to get him killed. He finally had the chance to live his life like a perfectly normal fifteen year old, and he had no intention of letting that slip away from him.

All would be well.

⸙⸙⸙⸙

“Did you want to see me, Headmaster?”.

Minerva McGonagall entered Albus Dumbledore’s office on that August afternoon having absolutely no idea what it was that required her attention.

After Lord Voldemort’s effective demise, Minerva had found a new peace of mind, working all summer on improving Hogwarts’ educational programmes in coordination with the Ministry of Magic.

She was working on establishing new courses and modernizing the traditional ones Hogwarts already held.

Magic was a notoriously everchanging force, a power that is not set in stone. Spells could be modified, divination techniques could be updated, and potions perfected.

And generally speaking, Hogwarts’ school program had been the same for something like fifty years. It had been a shamefully long time since someone had taken care of updating the courses.

So her big goal for the upcoming school year was to offer her students the best of the best, in terms of education. Unfortunately, undertaking such a demanding task also meant organizing meetings with the other professors and the Ministry and making sure everyone was putting (at least) some kind of effort into the project, even the ones who couldn’t stand the idea of changing.

“Professor, take a seat please.” Minerva did as she was told, starting to feel a little uneasy.

How could this thing Albus wanted to tell her be of such importance so as to convince him to call her to his office? Usually, they discussed anything related to school plans over a cup of tea at breakfast. What could have happened? Was there another awful menace coming for them? For Harry?

“Albus, you’re starting to make me think something bad happened. Why did you make me come up here?”.

The old headmaster combed a hand through his long white beard with a thoughtful expression painted on his face.

“Tell me, Minerva,” said he staring directly into the Trasfiguration teacher’s eyes, “What do you know about mythology?”.

At that, Minerva really thought she was going to have a nervous breakdown.

Was this what Albus wanted to talk about?

“You know reading about Greek mythology is a passion of mine. I like to think I know plenty about myths and Gods. But why did you ask me, exactly?”

Dumbledore lit up like a Christmas tree, and clapping his hands with a pleased flare, said: “Oh my dear Minerva, then you’ll be delighted with the news I’m going to give you. You see, this year Hogwarts is going to have some exchange students from overseas, ten in total. They’re going to study our subjects, and will be sorted into our four houses, just like our wizards and witches here do. The only difference is... they are not magical beings.”

And at that, Minerva was sure she was going to have a nervous breakdown.

“Did you just say Muggles will be attending Hogwarts this year? Not only that, but American Muggles? How is that not against the Statute of Secrecy?!” Minerva started to stutter, getting paler and paler every second that passed.

“How are they going to learn what we teach here? Most subjects would be impossible for them to master, just like Charms, or Trasfiguration, and there’s Defence too--”  
Minerva went on and on listing all the difficulties the new students would surely meet studying at Hogwarts, and came to the conclusion that among Dumbledore’s idiotic ideas, this was surely the dumbest and most utterly idiotic one, topped only by his idea of making Harry live with Lily’s sister’s family after the death of his parents. Thank God for Sirius and Remus, were able to take him with them instead.

“They are demigods, Minerva”.

Minerva gave up trying to find a sense in what Dumbledore was saying.

“Demigods?”

“Yes, demigods.” said Dumbledore, running a hand through his beard, the other still on his desk.

“Since you know lots about Greek mythology, you must know that in the Greek pantheon there is a Goddess of Magic, Hecate, who’s also the Goddess of Choices and Crossroads. There are plenty of myths in which her powers were able to defeat evil and bring glory to the heroes that were blessed by her protection. But I thought, as I’m sure you do too, that they were just stories, created to teach important lessons. Fascinating stories, yes, but just stories. So you can imagine my surprise when this morning the very Goddess of Magic came bursting through my office door, demanding that I take ten of her most powerful demigods to teach them magic, here.”

Albus looked poised even after what he had just revealed, and kept looking at Minerva with a calm expression.

“She told me it was time that the children of the Gods met her own children. That we have been apart for too long, and that this period of peace both of our sides have finally reached should be used to reconnect and to learn about each other again, as both parts have forgotten one another.

“I, for a change, have found that even at my age, life never stops surprising you. I look forward to this exchange, Minerva, and I’m sure you do too. That’s why I’m asking you to help me set up a welcoming committee, in order to prepare for our guests’ stay in the best way possible and make them feel welcome not only in the Wizarding World, but also in the United Kingdom. I’m aware you have countless things to take care of, with the reformation of our entire school program, but I trust you’ll be able to find some spare time to dedicate to this new, exciting task. It’s not like you’ll be doing all the work on your own anyway. I’ll be the one who’ll organise the majority of our guests’ stay, don’t worry. I’d just like to be able to consult you from time to time to make sure I’ve found the best way to accommodate our guests. Wouldn’t want to upset the children of so many powerful deities, am I right? So, what do you say, Minerva? Any questions?”.

The only thought inside the professor’s head since the word “Hecate” had left the old Headmaster’s mouth was very simple. _“I’m dreaming”_.

“So, Ancient Greek Gods exist, all the myths we’ve always thought were legends are actually real, demigods are going to attend Hogwarts, and if we do something wrong, we could have the Gods’ fury set upon us?”

“Exactly.”

Minerva sat down heavily on the chair.

_I guess there’s no way we can have a normal year here at Hogwarts. School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, now open to demigods too._

“Merlin help us”.

⸙⸙⸙⸙⸙

In the meantime, the atmosphere at Camp Half-Blood had definitely changed.

“Like hell Annabeth and I are ditching University just to go to a fucking wizardry school across the ocean!!”

Percy Jackson was yelling in the face of an Olympian once again.

Red faced, hands curled into punches, Percy was shamelessly yelling obscenities at Hecate, Goddess of Magic.

His girlfriend Annabeth Chase was by his side, silent for once, letting her boyfriend lash out at her Royal Olympic Ass as he pleased.

Annabeth remembered fearing the Gods, once. She used to fear what would happen to her if she were to disrespect them, if she didn’t follow their orders and grant their wishes.  
Now after all the things she had been through, two wars, Tartarus and the countless monsters she’d fought alongside Percy and her friends since age 12, it was safe to say she didn’t care at all, not anymore.

None of them cared anymore, especially Percy, who since the beginning had always been very vocal about all the wrongs the Olympians had done to their children.

After a life like theirs, it was difficult to care, and the Gods knew that too.

That was why Her Royal Assholeness, the Queen of the Witches, was standing still, her arms crossed over her chest, clearly trying not to incinerate the son of Poseidon on the spot and quietly listening to what he had to say.

There were eight other people silently listening to the demigod, all seated around the ping-pong table in Chiron’s office where the Cabin Councils were usually held.

Jason, Piper, Nico, Will, Frank, Hazel, Leo and Calypso made up the rest of Hecate’s “DD-Team”, as she had called it, the Goddess of Magic’s “Dream Demigod Team, the best of the best, _la crème de la crème_ , the ones who will surely astonish the wizards and witches of Hogwarts like no one else ever could!” she had sung happily only a few minutes prior, all giddy and joyful.

She had interrupted their lunch time by appearing right in the centre of the dining hall, demanding they instantly stopped what they were doing and came with her to talk in Chiron’s office. Once there, more irritated than ever, the ten demigods had sat down and listened to Hecate tell them about the existence of a Magic School across the ocean, in Scotland, and about her desire to expand knowledge about the magical world to more people, starting with Greek demigods. She had begun talking about the school and the Wizarding World, presenting the task she was about to offer them as an opportunity to learn about arts denied to the minds of most people in the world. Oh, the knowledge that they’d find there, waiting for them to be discovered again and shared to all the other demigods!

 _This sounds too good to be true._ Thought Annabeth, in part intrigued by what Hecate was promising them, in part knowing she was, as every God they had had the misfortune to meet, certainly failing to mention the downsides of the task to them.

Just as this thought crossed her mind Percy spoke up, demanding clear and practical information about the task. Would they really have to just study magic? There will be no one to fight, no risking their lives? Because he sure as hell wasn’t going to risk his life now that he had a possible future with Annabeth in New Rome.

At that, Hecate stopped her monologue and looked down at the ten demigods, in the eye, one by one, as if she couldn’t believe what she had heard.

“I’m offering you a year at the most important Wizarding School in the world! I can’t believe-”

“A year?! Are you crazy?” shouted Percy standing up from his chair, looking red in the face and positively livid.

“I know you Gods don’t care about time, but have you, for even just one second, stopped to reflect about what would possibly mean to us to spend a whole year of our lives overseas?! What are we, your dolls?! We have lives here, people we care about!”.

Hecate simply laughed at that, her dark blue dress swinging and shining like a night sky full of stars, as if it was laughing along with her.

“Oh come on son of Poseidon, would you really give up that kind of knowledge for a single year of your life? That’s insane and you know it too. Daughter of Athena, you certainly are wiser than your boyfriend. I know you understand the power I’m putting in your hands. I hope you’ll make him realise that a year is just the little price to pay to become the most powerful demigods that ever walked on this earth. Hazel, my dear, you too!”.

Hazel looked away, determined not to get involved with any of Hecate’s plans.

Annabeth after the Goddess’ words slowly rose from her seat, looking more tired than she usually let herself show, and reached her boyfriend’s side, not speaking a word, ignoring the Olympian’s gaze.

“I know perfectly well that what you are offering us is of inestimable value, Hecate” she said, watching as the Goddess smiled triumphantly at her.  
“But” she said, stopping the Olympian from interrupting her.

“I also know that I’m speaking for all of us when I say this: we are tired. Tired of tasks, tired of everything that doesn’t revolve around our personal world. We are tired of never living as if we were simple teenagers, of leaving our friends and families behind because you Gods need our help. You can’t ask us to leave everything we know a year after a war. When we have just found something that actually resembles normality.”

Annabeth sighed, looking exhausted.

“Some of us have plans for the future, and you can’t ask us to do something like that without keeping that in account” said the daughter of Athena with an air of finality that left the atmosphere chilly and full of suspense.

The room stayed silent for the longest time.

Then Percy started yelling at Hecate again, as Annabeth and the others silently watched.

After what felt like an eternity, Percy stopped his raging and sat back on his seat, his hands on his head, trying to control his breath.

Hecate, impassive, studied the looks on the demigods’ faces, looking for a tiny trace of sympathy, a clue that not everyone of them agreed with Perseus and Annabeth’s views. As she found nothing, she sighed deeply, ready to pull out her last card, her last possibility of convincing at least some of them to take the chance she was giving them.

“I can’t understand how you feel, demigods. But I won’t force you to take the extremely generous opportunity I’m offering you, if you really don’t want to.

I must say though, that I don’t think you can make this decision yet.” Her eyes fled around the room, registering the reactions of the demigods at her words. They looked wary, but willing to listen to her reasons, so she decided to continue.

“Afterall, you don’t even know how much that type of power can help you defeat monsters in a fight.”

The demigods’ faces suddenly looked a little bit more interested in what the Goddess had to say.

“You will learn how to read the stars to predict the future! You’d be able to predict which place is safer for camping, which zones are best to avoid!”

No particular reaction at that.

“And how to care for magical plants! How to prepare healing potions as effective as, if not more than, ambrosia!”

At that, Will started to look very interested in that kind of knowledge, thinking as always about his patients and how to improve his abilities and the treatments available at the Camp’s infirmary.

Hecate noticed the progress, but still, one demigod was not enough. She needed to convince at least four more.

“You will learn how to cast spells! You’ll be able to summon objects, and levitate them, and lots of other things!”

Absolutely nothing.

“And curses! And protecting shields!”

That seemed to do the magic, as the demigods – even Hazel, who at first had seemed the most reticent of all, were now staring at her with a pointed look.

The daughter of Pluto especially was looking at her as if she were trying to read her mind, her arms crossed over her chest, her spatha always secured to her hip.

 _Oh Dear Me, she’d be so good at Legilimency_ , the Goddess couldn’t help but think.

“Shields?” asked Jason, looking skeptical but rather intrigued by the thought.

“Exactly, son of Zeus, shields. And weapons. And, potentially, anything that could help you gain the victory in battle.”

And as the demigods started to look around, trying to read their friends’ thoughts through their expressions, Hecate knew she had won.

“You don’t have to communicate your decision to me yet,” said the Goddess, a sly smile dancing on her face, partially obscured by her long, curly raven hair.

“Take your time to think about it. Obviously I don’t mean to fret, but is there anyone, by any chance, who is already sure about their plans?”.

Will shrugged, casting a side glance to Nico, as to question him silently.

It was clear as day that the son of Apollo really wanted to grab the opportunity and leap into this new adventure, Nico on the other hand sported an unreadable blank expression, that made it nearly impossible to understand which thoughts were crossing his mind.

Their eyes met halfway. They stood there staring at each other for the longest time, until finally both of them smiled widely and turned their heads back to their original position, facing the Goddess of Magic and looking at her in the eye.

“Okay, we’re in.” said Nico, simply taking Will’s hand into his. “We both always wanted to visit the UK, and there seem to be lots of interesting ways we can get better at fighting attending this school. So yeah, we’re in.”

“Well, then I think I’d like to go too.” said Calypso, a tiny excited smile gracing her lips. She wasn’t a demigod, but Hecate had chosen her too regardless, mostly thinking about how the Wizards of Hogwarts would be amazed by her presence and story. Afterall, it’s not everyday that you meet a girl who’s been alive for millenia and has met at least half of the most important Greek heroes!

“I want to learn everything I can while I’m given the chance.” Turning to Leo, who was sitting right beside her, she whispered sweetly “You coming?”.

Leo looked kind of guilty after hearing how eager his girlfriend was to go overseas. He shrugged, struggling to find a way to tell her that he didn’t know whether he wanted to go or not.

“I-I…”

He felt exhausted, just as Annabeth had said, and in his heart he felt like he couldn’t stand to be a part of yet another adventure.

But, on the other hand, what would he do here at Camp, if he decided not to go?

He had been enjoying what life felt like at Camp Half-Blood: he loved having enough spare time to both work on all of Bunker 9’s projects, and spend his afternoons with his friends and his girlfriend, just joking and playing Camp games. Having fun.

He had been loving the slow rhythm that scanned his days at Camp, but Leo knew how he worked, just like he knew any other machine at Bunker 9: he would get bored, in the end, terribly bored, and with his girlfriend and friends gone, what was he supposed to do, all alone?

Sure, he could pass his time developing new devices, working on new projects, but did he really want to spend all of his free time like that?

“I think I have to think about it.. I don’t know.”

Calypso’s smile seemed to fade a bit at first, but it was quickly replaced by a wider, sweeter, warmer one, as she took Leo’s hand into hers.

Hazel and Frank were arguing quietly about New Rome and their praetor duties, wondering if it was even possible for them to participate in this “exchange program”.

Since Hecate had first told them of her “offer”, the daughter of Pluto couldn’t help but feel suspicious. It all sounded too good, and not risky at all. That was usually the first warning signal, when it came to Gods’ offers: is there no risk to take? Absolutely nothing to lose? Then it’s a scam, girl, 100%.

Also, she wasn’t sure she felt completely comfortable with the thought of becoming a real “witch”, like her mother was.

But after Hecate’s talk, she admitted she now felt kind of curious about the Goddess’ proposal.

Okay well, being completely honest, Hazel was more than just “kind of curious” about the whole thing.

If what Hecate had told them was true, then the magic they taught at Hogwarts was very different from demigods’ idea of magic, which basically consisted of manipulating the Mist. And if it could really help them, then declining her offer would be an idiotic move to say the least.

But her particular relationship with anything related to magic wasn’t the only problem that was holding her (and Frank) back.

“Honestly, I’d like to go, but what about Camp? We are Preators, we have duties, and responsibilities, we can’t just leave!” said Frank, in part sad, in part resigned. There was no way they could attend that school without giving up their Praetor status, and did they really want to? They were amazing Praetors, afterall.

“Maybe we can coordinate the Camp from abroad. We’re not in war times, we’re not living particularly difficult situations. And it’s not like they’d be helpless without us, anyway. We could nominate two substitutes at Camp, as representative figures, and we could still participate at Senate meetings via IM. We’ll have to put this at vote, obviously… But we could try to make it work, if you’re sure you want to go.”

Frank looked down at her, a mildly nervous look in his eyes, and smiled, nodding fiercely, making Hazel grin.

“Annabeth and I are not going!” said Percy suddenly, just as Hazel was opening her mouth to tell Hecate about her and Frank’s decision.

Silence fell among the other demigods, who were now all looking at Percy and Annabeth, who sat right next to the other with hard expressions on their faces.

“That’s okay, son of Poseidon. That’s your choice.” said Hecate with a soothing voice, refraining from showing just how disappointed she was that the two most important and powerful demigods in the last millenia had decided to let her down. Wizards would have loved the stories about their adventures so much!

“We’re sorry guys, but you know we’ve been planning to go to University in New Rome for the longest time. We hope you’ll have fun anyway.” said Annabeth with a big smile on her face, not looking apologetic at all despite what she had just said. Percy rested his left hand or her right thigh, looking just as sorry as his girlfriend, enjoying the soft feeling of her skin on his palm with a tender look on his face.

However, the Goddess’ disappointment at the loss of Percy and Annabeth faded away as soon as Jason Grace and Piper McLean accepted her offer.

They had decided to break up last spring, not because they didn’t love each other, but because it was clear to them that their relationship had skipped several important landmarks, and neither of them were happy with that. After almost a year of feeling like they knew nothing about each other that was true and arguing about it, they knew they had to do something.

There was no point in making that unhealthy relationship prosper any longer, so they decided to just give it another go, this time starting at friends, getting to know each other for real and sharing real adventures, and engaging in this type of venture certainly seemed a perfect way to do that.

Hecate smiled, once again, a triumphant expression visible all over her face.

“That’s all settled then! Son of Haephestus, I’m going to give you three more days to think about my offer. Who knows, perhaps you won’t be the only one who will reflect on it.” Hecate smirked, directing a knowing glance at Percy and Annabeth, who still sat together, holding hands, and were now glaring at her.

“I’ll see you in three days, demigods.”

And with that, the Goddess of Magic twirled her gown and disappeared in a cloud of pitch black smoke, savouring the sweet taste of power and triumph.


	2. Wake Me Up When August Ends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is now beta read, thanks to Wonderatmywoman <3
> 
> Hope you'll like this chapter.

Chapter Two

Wake Me Up When August Ends

⸙

Leo was leaning on the wooden fence of Cabin 9’s porch, scanning the night sky as if searching for that little peace of mind he had just found and obviously lost the moment Hecate had interrupted their lunch in the dining pavillion three days ago, putting a premature ending to his peaceful days at Camp Half-Blood.

He had spent the last two nights wide awake, unable to rest, asking himself whether he really wanted to follow his friends in Scotland. After spending most of the first day longing for a little break from important decision-making and cursing his own rotten name he hadn’t just said no like Percy and Annabeth had, he had decided to try to deal with the situation with a different way of thinking.

So here he was, standing outside of his Cabin at two in the morning breathing in the chilly night air, slowly combing his hand through his curly hair with a thoughtful expression, absent-mindedly looking at the stars and comparing pros and cons of ‘Staying at Camp’ versus ‘Going to Hogwarts’.

Up until that moment, he really wasn’t having much luck with that method.

The only con he came up with about remaining at Camp was the fact that he’d be alone and friendless, just as he was not so long ago, before the war. If he decided to stay, would he be able to deal with loneliness again, without getting destroyed by its ruthless force? Would he be able to just adjust, without losing his cheerful self in the process?

Of that, he was not so sure.

Over the course of the years, especially last year, Leo had been through a lot. He had dealt with thousands of monsters, risked his life more times he liked to recount, almost losing it until he managed to fool Death one more time, slipping through his fingers just in time. 

It seemed like the only monster that even stood a chance against him was, quite ironically, the only one he felt like he couldn’t beat no matter how much he tried.  
And he didn’t want anything to do with it, not if he could avoid it.

But was that a legit way to act? He couldn’t move abroad for a year just because he felt scared of being left behind once again! It was insane, and an extremely unhealthy thought, also. How could he let an irrational fear dictate his decisions like that? He knew his friends would never leave him, no matter what. That Calypso wouldn’t love him any less if he decided not to go, in the end. So why was it so difficult to just stay?

He had taken many difficult decisions before. Why was this one scaring him so much? It’s not like he was risking his life anyway, and yet it was taking him so long to just decide.  
Just decide.

Maybe...

Leo suddenly felt the weight of the sky descend upon him, as if Zeus had decided to throw a bunch of lighting bolts right at the center of his skull. He carefully took a step back, a hand still running freely through his messy hair, the other anchored on the white fence, to stabilise himself. 

He felt so crushed by the sudden realisation that had hit him that he felt like he could actually faint.

Just decide. Maybe that was the whole problem. Maybe he was overthinking it too much. 

Leo didn’t think he was a very reflective person, but at the same time not a totally reckless one. He layed comfortably in the middle, and even though sometimes he couldn’t stand the feeling of not having everything under control, it wasn’t something that happened very often. He was anxious, sure, and hyperactive, definitely, but an overthinker? Not really. Not always, at least.

But this time, he was undoubtedly letting himself get caught up on feelings and fears that he had no reason to be, that were there just to obscure his mind.

Maybe, he just needed to jump.

Afterall, who cared about the “why”s? Did it really matter if he had taken his decision because he was scared of being alone? It was unhealthy, yes. It was something he needed to work on, undoubtedly. But did it really matter to anyone, in the end?

That was the moment Leo decided he didn’t want to be scared. Not of a decision, at least. He refused to live his life in fear. He had had enough.

So he made his way back to his Cabin and closed the door, leaving the singing of the cicadas outside, and went back to bed, finally letting himself enjoy a night of good sleep. 

⸙⸙

The next morning, Jason, Piper, Nico, Hazel, Will, Frank, Leo and Calypso gathered in Chiron’s office once again, waiting for Hecate to show up. As they waited for the Goddess’ arrival, they were excitedly discussing the things (very few, actually) that Hecate had told them about the school three days prior, before getting interrupted by Percy’s fit of fairly righteous anger.

“She said we will be sorted into Houses, and that every House has its quarters.” said Jason, who was sitting on one of the chairs near the ping-pong table munching noisily on a green apple. “This means that if we’re sorted into different Houses, we’ll get separated.”

“I don’t think we should worry about that. Even if we’re in different Houses, we can always sit together at class or at lunch.” said Hazel in response, who was sitting on a little couch, squeezed between Piper and Frank.

“Last night I was thinking about classes. If what Hecate said was right, some of us will attend Fifth year classes and others the Sixth year ones. How can we follow these classes if we know nothing about magic? If most of us can’t even do magic.” observed Piper. 

“How do these classes work anyway?” chimed in Will. “It’s not like she explained it to us. She just said we’ll learn how to cast spells and how to prepare potions and such, but she didn’t exactly go into detail.”

“You’re all right. As soon as Hecate finally decides to grace us with her presence, we’ll have to ask her lots of questions. We can’t go there knowing nothing about their school system.” said Nico, who was leaning on the door jamb with his arms crossed over his chest and a neutral expression. 

Suddenly the same cloud of black smoke who had suffocated them three days prior in the dining pavilion appeared, and a dark figure stepped out of its shadow. The cloud then started dissipating quickly, revealing the lean and pale figure of the Goddess of Magic.

Hecate still had on the same triumphant smirk she’d sported a few days prior, and was now looking down at them, happy they were already all there.

“I see you’re here with us too today, Son of Hephaestus.” simply noted the Goddess, casting a side glance at Leo, who sat on the floor at the foot of the couch on which Piper, Hazel and Frank were seated.

The demigod chuckled, combing a hand through his hair self-consciously. “Let’s say I’m ready for a new experience.” 

At that Hecate simply nodded, and offered him a small smile before returning her attention to the whole group of demigods. 

“Then, at this point let me tell you more about our little exchange program,” started the Goddess, making sure to have everybody’s attention on her before continuing with her explanation. 

“First of all, since the majority of you here don’t have even the faintest trace of magic inside their bodies, in order to let you start practising magic, I’ll first have to gift it to you.”  
The demigods looked a little bit startled by the news, but really, what did they expect? They were going to attend a Magic School. Of course they’d have to be able to use magic! The Goddess saw Piper McLean giving her a dirty look, almost as if she were thinking _‘Oh, here it is, that’s the scam’_. 

She was really starting to get sick of the disrespectful manners of these demigods, but before she could act on it she quickly reminded herself that she couldn’t afford to tear them into pieces. At least, not yet. They had a mission to accomplish, they had to show the entire Wizarding World just how powerful and exceptional demigods (and most importantly, the Gods) were. And she had to win, she had to prove to the other Gods that they had been wrong again. 

So, just as the demigod was about to open her mouth and complain, the Goddess promptly interrupted her and explained:

“You don’t have to worry demigods, it’s a perfectly painless process. You won’t have to prove yourselves to me or anything of the sort, since we’ll be skipping that step just for this occasion. The Gifting consists in a little ceremony, in which all you will have to do is repeat the words I tell you to repeat. Nothing else.” That seemed to sort of reassure the demigods, who had now turned silent, waiting for her to start speaking again. 

“As I already told you three days ago, Headmaster Dumbledore and I have come up with a plan which will let you learn about the Wizarding World without hiding your demigod status. Dumbledore assured me he’ll provide you with big rooms in which you’ll be able to train with swords or practise archery, just as you can here at Camp.  
You don’t have to worry about monsters attacking you while at Hogwarts, because the school is protected by several powerful spells and wards that are impossible to break. As I said, you will all be sorted into Houses, just as the other students are. There are four Houses,they are: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. They’re all different but all equally important, and each of them is characterised by three virtues and values. It is said that among these virtues, the ones you value the most determine the House you will be sorted in. The process is not that simple though: the Sorting Hat can also decide where to put you based on the qualities you exhibit. As for the Houses, Gryffindor’s values are bravery, chivalry and determination; Hufflepuff’s are hard work, dedication and loyalty; Ravenclaw's are intelligence, knowledge and wit; whilst Slytherin’s are pride, cunning and ambition.”

“All of you who are fifteen or sixteen years old will be attending the Fifth Year classes, whilst the ones who are seventeen will attend the Sixth Year ones. Speaking of classes, first of all you need to know that there are seven core subjects that are considered compulsory to attend: these are Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, History of Magic, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Astronomy and Herbology. In addition to these seven subjects, you’ll be asked to choose two more from a list of additional subjects that includes Arithmancy, Muggle Studies, Divination, Study of Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures.” 

“Since you never studied any of these subjects before and I need you to completely astonish and literally destroy any of the preconceptions wizards will likely have about you once you go to Hogwarts, I’ve decided that every day ‘till the 31th of August we’re going to meet up, just as we did today, in this room, and I'll start teaching you everything you need to know about magic.”

Hecate was fairly sure this disposition would make the demigods ecstatic. After all, they were going to learn magic with the Goddess of Magic herself! It’s not like that’s something that happens everyday. She was not expecting children screaming with joy, of course (even though she was sure that someone with better understanding of how much of an honor it was to learn magic from her would have done that, too). Maybe a few cries of delight, or big smiles, or pairs of dreamy eyes silently thanking the Fates for the opportunity, yes, those would certainly show up, according to her.

So, it was the understatement of the century to say that she felt bewildered when hell unleashed in Chiron’s office.

“What?!” spat Nico di Angelo, suddenly moving away from his place on the door jamb, his fingers folded into fists, looking positively murderous. Will Solace, who had been standing next to him the entire time (just as he usually did) had both of his eyebrows raised in a comically shocked expression, and was quickly scanning his friends’ faces to understand if he had got the Goddess’ words right. And it was clear from the looks on their faces that he had, in fact, understood everything very well. 

“Okay, I wasn’t expecting that.” said Frank, a surprised frown on his face. “Actually, I thought they were going to give us a tutoring lessons with a professor, or something.”  
Now, it was true that Hecate knew that these demigods were a bit… undisciplined, let’s say. And it was also true that she wasn’t expecting any demonstrations of utter joy. But this?! This was simply outrageous, and the Goddess couldn’t take it anymore.

“What do I hear!” thundered her, her voice similar to the roar of an enraged Bengal tiger, “Would you have preferred to be taught by a normal, mortal, not even remotely qualified enough professor than by me, the actual GODDESS of Magic?!” kept shouting Hecate, visibly very irritated by what message Frank’s words seemed to convey, as she started pacing around the room restlessly, her dark gown following her like a dark shadow.

“Oh well, no, I mean, we’re honoured to be given this gift, Lady Hecate.” said Calypso in a faint attempt to calm down the Goddess and make sure no one left the room deprived of important body parts or transformed into an animal. “Frank didn’t mean to offend you. He was just surprised, as we all are, afterall.”

The Goddess, though keeping her irked flair, seemed to settle for Calypso’s dubious excuse, silently reminding herself that she needed them alive, and well, and with all their body parts functioning. 

She simply waved her hand elegantly, as to dismiss the whole thing, and then she turned her head, her gaze scrutinizing each demigod and eventually settling on Nico di Angelo, who had been shouting just a few moments ago but was now standing still, a thoroughly crafted mask on his face to keep him from showing any signs of his past “excitement”.  
She kept her gaze focused on him, and with the usual triumphant smile on, she solemnly said:

“Believe me, my demigods, after our classes together you’ll be able to cast spells better than any wizard in that school can. I assure you.”

⸙⸙⸙

Just as Hecate was amiably conversing with our demigod heroes, on the other side of the world Harry Potter was waiting in front of a movie theater ready to meet up with his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, to hang out in Muggle London.

As per their new tradition, which had been established just over the course of that summer, every weekend one member of their trio decided how they wanted to spend the Saturday evening and the others had to follow their wish, without any complaint. After evenings of indoor activities (such as cooking, playing chess, painting, etc.), this was the first of their meetings that involved going out of the Wizarding World. There was no danger in doing so after Voldemort’s definitive demise back at the end of their previous school year, and they were rather enjoying all the new possibilities the definitive end of the war had brought them.

That Saturday it was Harry’s turn to choose, so he decided they would be going to the cinema, since he was dying to see if all the hype surrounding the The Lion King live-action was deserved or not. Even though he was fairly sure he was going to hate it regardless, since the original Lion King was his favourite Disney movie ever, he figured there was nothing wrong in giving it a try. 

“Harry!” the sound of his name being called made Harry turn around, and he saw Hermione coming towards him through the crowd of Muggle Londoners with her usual bright smile. She was dressed in a simple white sundress, and her usual black purse, which she had charmed with a particular extension charm she had found in a random spellbook at Hogwarts, was hanging off her shoulder.

She stopped in front of him and hugged him tightly, as she usually did, the familiar scent of her vanilla and coconut conditioner filling Harry’s nostrils. She let go of him and looked around, searching for their redheaded friend, but finding no one. 

“I see Ron’s not here yet, as usual.” said the witch, with an annoyed tone. Harry snorted, exasperated, and rolled his eyes at what was just the umpteenth snide remark Hermione had made about Ron since the beginning of the summer. 

At first he hadn’t given much thought about the rising level of Ron and Hermione’s constant banter, mainly because he was used to hearing their seemingly endless arguments since First year, when they had first met. 

Actually, thinking about it, the two had always been arguing, since the very first moment they had met, and it almost felt like there had never really been a moment in which those two stopped and acted like real friends. They were able to pick at each other even in the worst possible moments, and it was truly irritating sometimes, but Harry felt like the situation had never gone this far as it was now before.

Since the start of summer, it seemed like every time they saw each other was just another opportunity to pick on the other, and it was truly starting to drive Harry crazy.  
That was why he’d opted for the movie theater that Saturday evening, because he thought that maybe they wouldn’t go as far as starting an argument in the middle of a movie, with other people around them. Maybe they would behave as friends, for once.

He truly, deeply hoped so.

“Hey, you witch of little faith, I was just going to call up!” shouted Ron, who had just appeared from around the corner. The redhead ran to them and smacked his hand on Harry’s shoulder as a greeting, completely ignoring Hermione in a rather childish way. 

_Oh Merlin, here he goes._

Ron started telling Harry about the last prank the Weasley twins had pulled on Ginny that morning at breakfast, still paying absolutely no attention to Hermione. The girl in response turned the other way around, towards the movie theater’s entrance, and hastily scolded them:

“Oh come on you two, the movie’s going to start soon!” she said, her tone irritated, moving past them and making her way through the theatre hall in big leaps.

“God, she really needs to calm down.” whispered Ron, chuckling at the girl’s reaction.

Okay, the premise didn’t look good. But a boy could dream, right? He could still have his calm, peaceful afternoon movie with his two best friends in the world. Was that too much to ask?

Evidently, the Universe’s answer to that question was _yes it is, boy_. 

They had just started making their way towards the movie theater when an angrily flustered Hermione came out of the entrance like a fury, as if she was trying to escape something. As soon as she saw her two friends she abruptly stopped her marching, but her serious expression remained on.

It was unusual to see Hermione behaving so strangely, so naturally it set all of Harry’s alarm bells ringing furiously.

“Hermione, what the hell happened?! Why did you leave?” said Harry, running towards her. She was still silent, and a bewildered expression reigned on her face.

“Let’s not talk about it. Please. Let’s not. Is there somewhere else you’d like to go, Harry? Believe me, it’s better if we don’t go to the movies tonight.”

“Bullishit!” spat Ron, his arms crossed over his chest. “Why don’t you just tell us what you saw? Sorry if I don’t exactly ‘believe’ you, but after everything we’ve been through together, I think it’s rather improbable that you’ve found something scarier than the bloody Dark Lord.”

At that Hermione looked down guiltily, and started mind absently fidgeting with the shoulder strap of her purse. For a moment, she seemed to be debating whether or not to tell the two boys about what she saw inside the hall, and looked rather conflicted. In the end, she shook her head and pulled her friends to a quiet angle down the street, eyeing warily the entrance hall.

“Okay, listen, I’ll tell you, but we really have to go somewhere else for tonight, and I’m sure you’ll agree with me.” The two boys said nothing but stared at her expectantly, waiting for her to start explaining.

“Well, then. You won’t believe who I saw inside the movie theater.” She stopped again, but just as Harry opened his mouth to tell her to just tell them, she hurriedly muttered:

“I just saw Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini buying tickets to The Lion King and getting popcorn”.

Silence.

Complete, utter silence. 

After a few seconds of that terrible silence, Harry felt Ron slowly turning his head towards him, but he was unable to move.

_What are Draco sodding Malfoy and his gang of Slytherin pricks doing in a Muggle theater?_

“Are you sure it was them, Hermione?” he knew he had said something stupid he moment those words had left his mouth, but he couldn’t help but wonder. Knowing the three Slytherins, the thought of seeing them in a Muggle meeting point was ridiculous, afterall. 

“Obviously I’m sure Harry, what a stupid question! Malfoy’s platinum blonde hair is practically impossible to mistake and Zabini was wearing his Slytherin team Quidditch hoodie. Also, Parkinson was wearing her favourite skirt.”

Ron looked confused at that. “Her favourite skirt? How do you know it’s her favourite?”

Hermione started gaping, her mouth slightly agape, evidently caught off-guard by Ron’s question. 

“Oh come on Ron, that’s the part of my sentence you’re choosing to focus on, Parkinson’s skirt?!” she angrily said, looking mad but at the same time avoiding both of their gazes. “Anyway, can we please concentrate on the real problem here? We can’t go in there!”

“I don’t know Hermione, I think we should still go. Isn't it strange of three notoriously blood purists Pureblood wizards to go to a Muggle movie theater? They could be up to something.” said Harry, passing a hand through his hair.

_Liar. You know you just want to see him._

“I agree with Harry. They could very well start hexing innocent Muggles while in there, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. We have to know what the bloody hell they’re doing in here.”

Hermione’s face was inexplicably panicked, as she looked at the two boys with pleading eyes, almost begging them to listen to her. What was she so afraid of, anyway? It’s not like they’d go attacking them if the Slytherins didn’t actually mean any harm (which was very, very unlikely, at least according to Harry).

In the end she understood that there was no way her friends could change their mind, so she just gave up and turned around, making her way towards the entrance for the second time, this time closely followed by her friends. 

They entered into the mostly empty hall and headed straight to the ticket booth to buy tickets for the movie. While they waited for their popcorn to be ready, Harry looked around searching for any trace of the Slytherin Trio, but finding none.

They entered the projection room and began to blindly search for their seats, moving around the dimly lit room for a solid five minutes before finding them in the central row.  
Looking around, Harry saw that the seats in the room were all free, except for the ones they were occupying and other three seats, towards the end of their same row... where Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini were seated.

And the sight was one of the strangest things Harry had seen in his life.

He saw Blaise Zabini sitting in a disheveled way, one of his long legs placed over his seat’s armrest and a big bag of popcorn in his lap. His left arm was wrapped all over Malfoy’s shoulder, who was resting his blonde head on Zabini’s shoulder. He was looking so relaxed it almost seemed unreal. The both of them were laughing at something Parkinson was telling them, taking handfuls of popcorn from the big bag in Zabini’s lap now and then. 

It seemed they hadn’t noticed anyone had entered the room, because they kept laughing loudly not even glancing at them, evidently enjoying themselves.

They seemed so different from what they were usually like at school, so far away from their usual posh and collected selves, and it was honestly unsettling to see them behave like that. At the same time though, it was eye-opening.

Watching them having fun like normal teenagers in fact was making Harry starting to feel a little bit like a fool. Until then, the possibility that the Slytherin Trio could behave something other than their usual mean attitude had never even crossed his mind. 

In his mind, those were the people who sneered and laughed when someone fell, who made fun of everyone, who believed in blood purity and were part of Slytherin House.  
But they also looked so oddly happy and nice, sharing the big bag of popcorn and laughing carefreely like that. They looked kind of... _approachable_.

Yes, Harry was feeling like a complete fool.

“Please tell me you’re seeing what I’m seeing, too.” whispered Ron, careful not to be heard. Harry slowly nodded, his gaze still focused on the soft look on Malfoy’s face. The boy was now playing with the hem of Zabini’s hoodie, still attentively listening to whatever Parkinson was saying, a playful spark in his gray eyes.

Had he ever seen him so happy? Harry liked to think he knew Draco Malfoy. And sure, he knew the Slytherin Prince, the heir of the Malfoy family. He knew the prick who stole Neville’s Remembrall in First year and said those awful words to Hermione in Second year and who, generally speaking, was a fucking asshole to anyone who wasn’t his friend.

But did he really know him, in the end? Harry couldn’t even say he knew the Slytherin could be able to look like that, at least not until a few minutes prior. 

What was there to be still discovered?

“I don’t think they mean any harm. They’re just… eating popcorn, really.”

“Should we go to them? I mean, we’re the only ones in the room, and we know each other. Wouldn’t it be bad if we just ignored them?” proposed Hermione, sounding unsure.

“Are you mad?! We can’t just go to them like that! I’ll remind you that they hate us, just in case you forgot.” retorted angrily Ron, the redness of his face noticeable even in the dimly lit room.

Harry, however, was thinking that maybe Hermione’s idea wasn’t so bad. There was only one way they could discover if the whole “holier-than-thou” attitude they sported at school was just an act or was, in fact, their true selves, and that occasion presented the perfect opportunity to answer that question definitely. 

“I think we should go.” said Harry, looking his friends in the eye. “Maybe we’ve been wrong all this time, to think they were completely shitty people”.

Ron was looking at him like he had just said that magic sucked, his mouth open in an incredulous expression that would have made him laugh out loud, were the circumstances any different.

“Merlin Harry, do you have a death wish?! They’re going to hex us as soon as they notice it’s us!”

“Oh come on Ron, they wouldn’t and you know it. And why are you getting scared of a bunch of harmless Slytherins simply chewing on popcorn and laughing? We’re Gryffindors, for Godric’s sake!” After saying that, Hermione sat up and gathered her things, looking eager but at the same time kind of nervous to approach the Slytherins. 

Harry and Ron followed her, and the three of them started making their way to the end of the row. When they approximately reached the middle of the room they saw Parkinson’s figure stilling, and the sounds of laughter that had previously filled the room dying fairly quickly. 

“Uh, hi. Are these seats free?” said Hermione tentatively (and kinda lamely too, at least according to Harry), as they stopped in front of the three Slytherins, who looked like they had just seen a ghost. All the peacefulness of before seemed to fade away as the air in the room grew more and more tense.

Harry saw Zabini’s arm slither away quickly from its place over Malfoy’s shoulder, as if he had just burned himself. Malfoy, on the other hand, was looking murderous, his mouth contacted in a furious sneer. 

“What the hell are you doing here?!”

“Funny Malfoy, I was about to ask you lot the same thing,” said Ron defensively, staring at the pale Slytherin right in the eye with a defiant attitude.

“Oh sorry Weasley, we hadn’t realized the cinema was your property. How foolish of us to want to go watch a movie.” spoke up Parkinson, rolling her eyes dramatically.

“Can you two please stop?” chimed in Harry, who was really fed up of people around him arguing non-stop. “Look, we just wanted to watch a movie too. But since we all know each other and there’s no one else in the room, there’s literally no point in sitting on the opposite sides of the room. So, do you mind if we sit here?”.

The Slytherins stayed silent for a long time, just staring at the Gryffindors like they had lost their minds.

In the end, Draco Malfoy just shrugged and signaled the three to sit down next to them, whispering a quiet “Oh, fuck it.”

Needless to say, at first it was terribly awkward. But as the film started and the wizards remained alone in the big projection room, both groups started loosening up a bit.  
It had all started with a simple joke Ron had made about the lions’ terrible facial expressions. Then Blaise Zabini started criticizing everything that had been changed from the original animated version, and without even knowing how, they had reached the end of the movie practically in tears from all the laughing. They had passed the entire time making snide remarks on the CGI until the end of the movie, and even after walking out of the movie theater they had kept on laughing about it, like they hadn’t passed four years of their lives considering the others mortal enemies.

Harry was captured by how uniquely fun this afternoon had been, by how easily the Slytherins and them had gotten along. Was that really that simple?  
He had found he loved Draco’s sarcastic remarks when they weren’t directed at him or his friends, and that Pansy was awfully good at doing impressions of literally anything on the planet. Blaise was funny too, when he decided not to be a jerk, apparently.

But perhaps what shocked him the most was how much both Ron and Hermione had enjoyed themselves. So much they didn’t start even a single argument, leaving him shocked but at the same time terribly glad. 

Merlin, if he’d known the snakes were the only ones who had the power to stop the lions’ bickering, he would have organised the outing himself a long, long time ago.

“We should really do this again sometime soon, I don’t think I’ve ever laughed this much in a single afternoon.” said Draco playfully. He had a big smile and his cheeks were tinted by a gorgeous and delicate shade of pink. His gray eyes sparkled like they never had before, at least in their presence, and Harry felt himself redden at the sight, knowing full well that to notice all those little details he must have been staring at the blonde’s face for an embarrassingly long time.

“We really should. I honestly thought it would end in disaster at first, but I admit it, I was terribly wrong. Oh, and you can write that down on the calendar, ‘cause it doesn’t happen very often.” said Blaise, causing Hermione and Pansy to burst out laughing.

“Okay then, what about next Saturday? The three of you and the three of us together again. Maybe we could have a walk down the city centre. What do you say?” proposed Ron, smirking at the three Slytherins. Blaise feigned indecisiveness, wrapping an arm around Pansy’s and saying: “Ah, my darling Pansy, what a tremendously difficult question we are called to answer today. What do you say, my dear? Tell me your thoughts on the matter please, I don’t think I could handle it if the weight of this enormously important decision hung over my head like a Damocles’-”

“Ah, shut up you cretin, stop making a scene!”

The Slytherins obviously accepted the Gryffindors’ offer, and the two groups parted ways with the promise of seeing each other the next weekend.

In the end, said Harry to himself that night, just before getting into his bed, everything worked out fine. Okay, actually it was wild, but fine nonetheless. 

_We saw The Lion King._

_I managed to get Ron and Hermione to stop arguing._

_And.. we’ve also kind of made some new ‘sort-of-friends’ in the process._

⸙⸙⸙⸙

It had been a week and a half since Hecate’s magic lessons had started at Camp Half-Blood, and Piper was tired of them already. 

They really hadn’t realized by Hecate’s talking just how much studying was required for that damned school, but after two days spent reading books that looked (and weighed, too) like freaking bricks, they were starting to get the hang of it.

The day after Hecate’s second visit at Camp, the Gifting ceremony had been held, and all of them had received a small portion of Hecate’s very own magic.

The moment Piper had received hers, she had suddenly felt like a burning fire was raging inside her chest, burning and devastating every rational thought inside her head. The feeling was so real and strong she almost felt like suffocating, before a calm sensation came washing down her throat like a balsam, extinguishing the wild fire almost instantly.  
From that moment on, she had been able to feel the magic flowing inside her veins, and she admitted she really liked the sensation. She felt stronger, more powerful, but not completely changed. It felt more like something had been added to her soul, but that it didn’t plan to take over her demigod self.

It felt really nice, and she figured that learning about how to use that new power would have been nice too, if their teacher hadn’t been Hecate.

Oddly enough in fact, although being the most (quite obviously) skilled witch in the entire universe, Hecate really, really sucked at teaching magic.

Since the movements came so natural to her she was having a really hard time explaining them to the demigods who were, naturally, clueless, and her attempts at teaching them had resulted in absurd conversations which didn’t really make sense.

“Wingardium Leviosa.” 

“No, no, no, NO! You’re saying it wrong!”

“How do I say it then?”

“YOU JUST SAY IT!”

Yeah, that had actually happened, just the day before. Piper remembered Jason slowly losing his mind after spending the entire morning trying to move a stupid feather using his wand, without any success. After yelling that, Hecate had decided to let him “practice” alone, and went sitting on a chair next to the ping-pong table. 

Jason then had spent another ten minutes trying to move the feather, still without any luck. But as soon as Frank had understood how to make it work, Jason had silently asked him to explain to him how’d he done it, careful not to be heard by Hecate, who was now on the other side of the room “helping” Will.

Very quietly, Frank leaned in his direction and whispered back: “Dude, you were saying it weird. Try to say _leviòsa_ , not _leviosah_.”

In the end, Jason had managed to move his feather, and had spent the rest of the day thanking Frank for being “a literal angel, what would I do without your brains, dude.”  
There were subjects, on the other hand, that Hecate found really easy to teach, thank the Gods. So currently the only subjects in which they remained mostly clueless were Charms, Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts. 

Piper really couldn’t wait to be taught those properly at Hogwarts, since they were really interesting subjects, especially Defense Against the Dark Arts, which was probably her favourite of all. She also liked Herbology and Potions, although not as much as Will did. 

It seemed like the son of Apollo wanted to learn everything he possibly could about potions and herbs, while Nico seemed to enjoy mostly Charms and Ancient Runes, that was one of the most difficult subjects she had ever seen, and personally loathed very much. 

They still had a week of lessons left before the 1st of September, and Piper, for the first time in her life, couldn’t wait for August to finally end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hoped you liked it <3


	3. Bad (Now Good) Blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longer chapter this week!

Chapter Three

Bad (Now Good) Blood

⸙

Throughout the course of August’s last two weeks, Harry, Hermione and Ron grew unexpectedly close to the Slytherin Trio.

Oddly enough in fact, after their accidental meeting that afternoon at the movie theater the two groups had started meeting up almost everyday, and spent most of their summer mornings in each other’s company, having breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron.

That sunny morning wasn’t of course any different, and they entered the doors of the wizarding pub in one big group, already chatting animatedly.

“Hello, my dear customers!” greeted Tom the innkeeper, smiling at them warmly from behind the counter. 

The first time he had seen them together it had been obvious he had been quite surprised at the sight. He’d tried to dissimulate and show them his usual jovial self, it had been clear what thought was crossing his mind (the very same one that seemed to be on the mind of literally everyone who saw them walking together, actually):

_When did that happen?!_

“Hello to you, Mr. Tom” replied Pansy Parkinson as she was sitting down at the large table at the centre of the inn, placing her black purse over the back of her chair.

Ron sat down next to her, laying with both of his arms over the table, his head rested over his wrists. 

He huffed, annoyed, and said: “If I don’t get something to eat this second I’m going to devour the table, I swear”.

Blaise threw back his head, and started laughing loudly. 

“Oh my, Weasley, who would have thought you were so dramatic. I suggest you find another way to satiate your giant-like hunger, by the way, I believe none of us here would be happy if we lost our mascot due to tetanus or whatever other diseases you can catch chewing on this table” whispered Zabini causing the others to burst out laughing, especially after Ron’s face became a deep burgundy-red colour, which almost completely erased the freckles on his face.

Hermione was the one laughing the hardest, even though she tried (not that much hard, anyway) to somehow get a grip.

“Shh, quiet, Tom could hear us” she quietly chuckled, quickly hiding her smirking mouth under her hand. 

That low warning though did nothing more than cause even more hilarity among the Slytherins, who were now getting some hard glares from the other customers of the inn, but looked like they couldn’t care less. 

They simply laughed, Pansy’s head resting on Ron’s arm, Blaise trying to calm down but failing miserably as he noticed Hermione snort from behind her hand. Draco was just looking at Harry with a wonderfully amused smile, rolling his eyes as if saying _‘we’re surrounded by idiots’_ , and Harry could almost hear in his head the petulant tone in which the Slytherin would have said that. 

Harry was incredibly happy to see they were all getting along so well, after everything that had happened between them at Hogwarts.

Sure, many things could not be forgiven yet, because they were too big and hurtful to be dismissed so lightly, but they were getting somewhere. They really were.

Harry had known their new friendship would work out in the end the day of their second outing, when Draco had set aside his pride and apologised to Hermione in a little ice-cream place in muggle London.

They had just sat down around a little plastic table when Draco had suddenly spoken up and started apologising to her, asking her to forgive him for how much of a stupid prat he had been to her in the past, trying to make his father proud by acting just like him.

And the moment the blonde had mentioned his father, Harry had knew his apology was completely sincere.

By the pained look on Draco’s face in fact, it was clear just how much it hurt for him to talk about his father, after everything that had happened to his family after the end of the school year. 

Following Voldemort’s fall in fact, a series of trials had been held in order to verify which ones of the free Death Eaters, the ones who had been found not guilty after the end of the First War, had betrayed the Wizarding World by answering his call the second time.

And Lucius Malfoy had been one of them. It had been unsurprising, really, at least for him.

On the contrary, it was clear by the way Draco idolised his father that he wasn’t aware in the slightest of who Lucius truly was, and after the trial, reality had hit him hard.

By the end of Draco’s speech, Hermione had tears in her eyes. She had hugged him tightly, once he had finished, assuring him he was forgiven, and she had whispered something in his ear too, careful not to be heard by any of their friends.

Harry had no idea what it was that Hermione had told him, but as soon as the Slytherin had heard it, Draco had let a few tears flow down his cheek as his mouth bendt in a soft watery smile, and hugged her back tighter, burying his face in Hermione’s long, bushy dark hair.

It was a truly precious moment.

That had, anyway, been ruined in record time by Ron.

“Hey, and for me no apology?!”

“Oh shut up Weasel, you’re still an insufferable prat” Draco had spat then, trying to make his tone sound just as venomous as usual but failing miserably, betrayed by his still tearful and tremulous voice.

Ron’s face in that moment at the Leaky looked pretty much like it had been at the ice cream place: frustrated, annoyed, and most of all… hungry.

“Okay, okay, I get it, Blaise is hilarious. Now please let’s just order something, I’m dying of hunger”.

After a big breakfast, they exited the pub and made their way to Diagon Alley in order to do some shopping and also get their school supplies for the new year.  
Afterall, it was already the 28th of August, and in less than a week they would be starting their Fifth year at Hogwarts, which didn’t leave much time for their shopping.

_It’s incredible how time flies when you’re having fun._

They separated as soon as they got to the shopping street, all of them waiting to visit different shops first.

Ron and Pansy had been the first ones to leave them behind. They had decided to follow their mutual love for anything sweet and overly artificially coloured and headed to the new sweet shop that had recently opened next to Madam Malkin’s, which, to their joy, was big and full of different types of literally any sort of Wizarding candy in existence.

Hermione and Draco, who were the girl and the boy with the best scores in their year, had bonded over being the only annoyingly smart and studious people in their respective groups, and had decided to go to Flourish and Blotts together in order to buy new books and nerd (or _‘sharing valuable knowledge’_ , as Draco would have probably put it) about the new subjects they were going to study in Fifth year.

Harry and Blaise on the other hand decided to go to the Quidditch shop, and had started making their way to the store, chatting about the next season of Hogwarts’ Quidditch tournament along the way.

“You Gryffindors literally have no chance to beat us this year. We’re going to end you!” said Blaise, jokingly punching Harry in the forearm.

“Yeah sure, dream on. You don’t even know who’s going to be on our team this year”.

“Oh, yes, but I already know which Slytherins will go to the try outs, and if they get in, then you’re all screwed” replied nonchalantly the Slytherin, holding his chin up in a knowing, overly-confident way, making Harry laugh.

“Still, I wouldn’t be so sure. And Merlin Blaise stop that, you look like a bloody peacock!”.

They entered the store still laughing about Blaise’s pose, and soon began searching for new Quidditch gear to replace what they already owned. 

“It’s absurd how a year’s training can literally destroy your gloves” said Harry, looking among the different types of gloves displayed. “Shouldn’t these things be more resistant?”.

“You’re telling me, my little Gryffindor friend”.

The two had entered the store just to find new gloves, but came out nearly a hour later holding several bags full of Quidditch accessories and curious gadgets they had found interesting and useful, just like the new enchanted broom cloth that cleaned, dusted and waxed your broom all at the same time.

“Salazar, this is exactly why my mother never lets me carry this much money when we’re going out”.

“And how come she let you, today?” enquired Harry, struggling to walk with the excessive number of bags in his hands.

“I didn’t ask her, obviously” replied Blaise smirking, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Harry then rolled his eyes, and suppressed a laugh.

He couldn’t help but feel like this year was truly going to be memorable.

⸙⸙

It was the morning of the 1st of September, and Will was, in one simple word, thrilled.

The two weeks of magic lessons provided by Hecate at the end of August had made him even more excited at the thought of attending a magic school, and even though some of Hecate’s lessons weren’t as.. _exciting_ , let’s say, as others, he had been enthusiastic nonetheless.

That morning he had woken up around 5 a.m., as he usually did, and fist thing in the morning he had headed to the infirmary, to make sure that everything was alright and in control.

Leaving the infirmary’s lead to his younger siblings Austin and Kayla turned out to be a big challenge for him, mainly because of his natural instinct to worry too much about things that were already perfectly fine. 

He knew, rationally speaking, that Kayla and Austin would do great as heads of the infirmary, but at the same time he couldn’t help but feel like he was making a big mistake, by leaving them behind.

Thank the Gods for Nico di Angelo, his best friend, his boyfriend, and his very personal voice of reason. 

“Will, you know perfectly well that Austin and Kayla are fully capable of handling a couple of broken bones on their own. After all, you _are_ helping your siblings by going” his boyfriend had said just the day before, during one of his moments. 

They had been laying on Nico’s bed, in the quiet atmosphere of the the Hades’ Cabin, peaceful as usual. Will had been resting his head on Nico’s lap, while the son of Hades listened to him vent and provided his own personal opinion, gently stroking his soft sun-kissed hair in the meantime.

“And even if you weren’t helping them, it doesn't matter. The only that really matters is that you enjoy magic, at least the magic Hecate told us about, and that you’re going to love studying at Hogwarts”.

Will smiled, as he focused on the heavenly sensation of Nico’s slender fingers brushing through his hair, trying to let go of his anxious thoughts.

Most people didn’t know about Will’s crippling anxiety. He was a doctor, after all, he was supposed to have his shit together. 

No matter how many times Kayla or Nico told him nobody would refuse to be treated by him if they knew, Will always felt like they were wrong.

Not that he would tell them so, obviously.

“Yeah, you’re right sunshine. If I don’t think about the infirmary, I feel ecstatic. How do you think it’s going to look, Hogwarts?”. At that Nico had snorted, carefully untangling his fingers from his boyfriend’s blonde hair.

“Actually, I don't know. It’s in Europe, and the school was founded during the Middle Ages, so maybe it’s a castle”.

Those words made Will forget about any of his previous fears and intrusive thoughts, as he started rambling happily about the possibility of the castle, his eyes big and sparkling.

Now, the day after, after having spent the morning and most of the afternoon packing up their things, Will, Nico, and the rest of the “DD-Squad” met up in front of the sparring arena.

“Okay, one last time, everyone” said Piper confidently, jumping over a rock in order to get everyone’s attention, a long list in her hands.

“As I read you’re going to check if you have the item, so pay attention”. She then cleared her throat and started reading, slow and loud.

“Work robes, pointed hats, protective gloves?”.

“Got ‘em”.

“Cloaks, wands, cauldrons?”.

“Yes”.

“Telescopes, brass scales, books?”.

“Yeah, them too”.

“I hope you remembered to pack warm clothes, for it’s going to be cold as hell down there”. At that, all demigods nodded.

“Perfect then, I think we’re good” said Piper with a pleased smile, as she put the list back into her pocket. “We just have to wait for Hecate, now”.

And obviously the Mistress of all Magic, who had quite the flair for dramatics (being the _‘biggest drama queen that ever existed’_ , as Leo had described her one time), decided to apparate in that precise moment.

As soon as the usual cloud of dark smoke enveloped them, Will suddenly found himself hoping this was going to be the last time they’d see the Goddess for a long, long time.

“My demigods, you’re already all here, amazing!” said the Goddess, clapping her hands.

“Yeah well, it would have been difficult to be late since we were supposed to be all here by six thirty” said Jason annoyed, looking at the Goddess.

“Who cares! Are you all ready to go?”. 

At those words, Will felt like what they’d been preparing for those past two weeks had suddenly become immensely real. He felt his smile growing wide, giddy, and he genuinely couldn’t seem to remember an experience that had made him as excited as this one was.

Instinctively he took Nico’s hand into his, squeezing it tight, but not strong enough to hurt. He turned to look Nico in the eyes, and he found that his boyfriend was smiling just as widely as he was, his amazing dark chocolate eyes sparkling in the last rays of the dying sun. 

“Yeah, I think we’re all ready” said Frank, looking at his friends and then back at Hecate with an expectant and radiant smile.

At the sight of the demigods’ excitement, Hecate couldn’t help but smile a little, too, secretly really happy of who she had chosen for this mission. They were heroic, brave, and clever, and still so, so young.

Even though they were also insolent and annoyingly bossy, Hecate really hoped those kids would finally get a bit of rest.

“Perfect, then. One last thing before we go, though”, she said. As the demigods looked at her expectantly, she raised her right arm to the air and turned her wrist in a swift but still very elegant motion. 

As soon as the Goddess let her arm fall back to her side, an unnaturally violent wind came blowing from seemingly nowhere, its force hitting the demigods harshly. 

Just as Will was starting to feel like it had been some sort of trap, or a giant prank pulled at them or something, the wind stopped, just as abruptly as it started. 

In front of them now, were standing eight owls, each one different from the other, but all as equally majestic.

“These little guys here will follow you at Hogwarts as pets. Thanks to them, you’ll be able to send packages and letters to whoever you want” said the Goddess.

“Oh my, they are all so cute!” said Calypso, who was the first one to step towards the creatures, and was now petting a light brown one who certainly was one of the fluffiest birds Will had ever seen in his life. 

Tentatively, each demigod reached for an owl. Will offered his finger to a little but fierce-looking barny owl, who looked back at him with his big eyes, looking very interested in him too. He smiled softly, scritching the soft feathers of the bird’s head, as he watched the little owl enjoying the scritches he was giving him, his feathers ruffling from pleasure.

“You should name them, by the way”, said the Goddess.

Will stared at the little owl in his hand. “Mh.. this is difficult, I’ve never been good at names”, said he to bird, who looked like he couldn’t care less about what he was saying, and was instead focusing on the scritches he was getting. “Maybe.. Alfie? Alfie sounds cute. What do you think Neeks?”.

Will turned around to ask Nico what he thought about the name, when he saw that, behind him, Nico was holding in his hand a beautiful snowy owl with large, intelligent amber eyes. He looked completely mesmerized by the creature in his hands, who was curiously looking at him with the same intensity, its head slightly tilted to the side. 

The two made an awfully adorable sight and Will found himself just staring, unable to look away, thankful for once to have been chosen for a quest.

“Whoah, these things are amazing! And so cute!” he heard Leo say, sounding quite excited and amused. There was a small brownish tawny owl on top of his head, who looked like it was enjoying the situation very much, too.

“You know what? I have the perfect name for you. You’re adorable, tiny, and cute. ‘Eco’ would be perfect for you. She’s an old friend of mine, you see...”.

As soon as all the demigods had chosen their owls, Hecate ordered them to form a circle and take each other’s hands.

“Wow, didn’t know we were kindergarteners” said Piper to Jason, careful not to be heard by the quite pettish Goddess.

“Here we are, my demigods. We’re now going to reach Scotland by apparating, a process that usually doesn’t work for such long distances but well, there’s hardly anything I can’t do, if that’s related with magic”.

No one was surprised, really.

“Well, then. Get ready, you might feel nauseous or dizzy while apparating, and you’ll probably throw up the second we land, but don’t worry too much.

“Hold onto each other tight, and we’ll go in three, two, one…”.

Suddenly, Will felt as every fiber of his body had been abruptly torn apart and had started fluctuating into space. 

He couldn’t feel his fingers, which he knew were steadily holding on to Nico’s hand on one side and Calypso’s on the other, nor his feet, and he almost started fearing for his life. After all, Hecate wasn’t infallible, _not at all_ , and her Charms lesson had abundantly proved it.

Sure, she was the Goddess of Magic and all, but it wasn’t like he usually relied much on the Gods’ powers to get him out of potentially life-threatening situations anyway.

Just as he was starting to believe they were actually going to die and that Hecate was a world-class incompetent, he felt his limbs reconnect and his body return whole all at once, and he suddenly felt like he could breathe again.

Without even fully understanding what was going on, he felt the weather grow unexpectedly cold and the sensation of a hard surface under his feet. He quickly opened his eyes, and looked around searching for his friends.

They were all together, still holding hands and in a circle, in what seemed like a train station, with just two tracks and two red benches along the platform.  
A sign above their heads stated they were at-

“Hogsmeade’s Station. We've reached our destination, my demigods. Now I’ll go and leave you in the hands of the Care of Magical Creatures professor, Hagrid. Dumbledore assured me he is a very kind man, so you have no reason to fear his aspect”.

Will was fairly sure nobody among them, who had already seen every kind of monster imaginable, would bother to fear a single man, but he guessed it was kind of thoughtful of this Dumbledore dude. 

Unfortunately, that also meant Hecate probably hadn’t told him anything about them.

“Farewell, my heroes. Remember, make me proud” said the Goddess with a solemn tone, and like she had appeared at Camp, she disappeared in a cloud of the same black smoke, leaving them alone at the deserted train station.

“Gods, finally” breathed Jason, letting go of his luggage and spontaneously combing a hand through his blonde hair with his eyes closed, as if he were savouring a moment of pure delight.

“I can’t believe she’s finally gone, it feels like a dream” said Frank in response, letting himself fall onto the nearest bench, holding his throbbing head between his two big hands. “Gods, I think I understand why that thing doesn’t work on long distances. I feel like my skull has been hammered”.

“Same here, I truly can’t believe she’s such a show-off. But maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised, knowing her kind…” said Piper sounding terribly exhausted.

They kept complaining about Hecate for another ten minutes or so before they caught sight of a figure of a man steadily making his way down to them.

As he got closer to them, Will was able to finally make out some of the features of the mysterious man, that was in all likelihood Hagrid.

The figure was very tall and wide, resembling in structure the one of a baby giant. He could see the man had a long, wild black beard, and very long and wild hair.

“You must be the demigods! I’m Hagrid, I teach Care for Magical Creatures at Hogwarts. You should all come visit me in my studio later for a good cup of tea, you all seem really nice guys and girls” said he, smiling at them kindly. 

Will saw Hazel smiling widely at Hagrid and already opening up her mouth, probably to introduce herself, but Hagrid started talking again, interrupting her:

“I’m sure we’ll have all the time to get to know each other, but for now, we must hurry! The Sorting Ceremony is going to end very soon otherwise and that would be a very big problem” said he, not wasting any more time and picking up Jason’s luggage, which was all scattered around the platform.

Jason rose up from his seat on the platform’s floor to take his luggage himself, but the man had already started to sprint away, to the castle’s direction.

⸙⸙⸙

Harry was sitting in his usual seat at the Gryffindor table, with Hermione and Ron at his sides, and was sharing a word with Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas and Neville Longbottom, whom they hadn’t seen over the course of the summer.

His Fifth year was the first year no insults had been shared between the Slytherin and Gryffindor Trios during their first night back at the castle, or on the train, and even though it felt kind of strange, it also was one of the best feelings Harry had ever felt. 

The moment they had seen each other on platform 9 ¾, it had felt natural to them to warmly greet each other just like they did everytime, as if they were childhood friends. It had caused quite a few shocked reactions from the ones that hadn’t already seen them together, but they hadn’t cared at all.

It felt so good to be able to sit down the Great Hall and relax, no Dark Wizards waiting to kill him, no foes ready to pull pranks on him or talk behind his back.

He felt inexplicably good and warm inside, sitting in his usual place with his friends, probably because some part of him was sure that his Fifth Year would finally be the year nothing bad happened to him or his friends, and he wanted to believe it with all his heart.

Even though… maybe the reason he was feeling so _warm_ was that he had been able to feel Draco’s eyes on him since they first had sat down on the benches, and then all throughout the terribly long and mind-numbingly boring Sorting Ceremony, that was luckily going to end any minute.

_Why is he staring at me?_

It was like he wasn’t able to function with those silverquick eyes focused on him, and Harry was seriously struggling to keep his cool and ignore the staring, instead of listening to what his impatience was telling him and marching straight to the Slytherin table to question Draco in front of the whole school.

However, as tempting as it sounded, it really was too dramatic and rushed, even for _“the biggest Gryffindork that ever walked this Earth”_ , as Draco had kindly put it one day.

So, all that was left for him to do was suffer in silence.  
The Sorting was ending anyway.

As the name of the last little girl of the First Years was called, Harry felt his shoulders drop and relax. Now he could focus on the food that was going to appear on the table any moment, and leave the sight of Draco’s silver eyes behind, locked in a little cell in the back of his mind.

But before he could get struck again in the feeling of Draco’s intense stare, Dumbledore rose up from his seat at the professor’s table to give his usual welcoming speech to the new students.

So Harry forced himself to listen to him talking and kept his gaze focused on the professor’s table, impatient but happy nonetheless that the ceremony had finally ended. 

He noticed though, out of the corner of his eye, that professor McGonagall didn’t have the Sorting Hat in her hands, but had instead left it on the little stall that was used for the Sorting. 

Which was rather unusual, since she usually brought it back to Dumbledore’s office when the Headmaster started his speech.

_There’s something going on, I can feel it._

“My dear students”, started Dumbledore, his arms open in a welcoming pose which was supposedly meant to symbolise a big hug. 

“Welcome, or welcome back, to Hogwarts. I’d now let you get your hands on all the delicacies our irreplaceable elves have so lovely prepared, but first, I have a rather important announcement to make about something new coming in our beloved school”.

Harry felt his shoulders slightly tense up again, and he subtly tilted his head to glance at Hermione and Ron.

_Please, please, please, let it be something that’s not going to kill me._

_Please. For once._

“This year, Hogwarts will become a new home for some very special exchange students from the USA” exclaimed Dumbledore, rising his arms in festive joy and smiling at the crowd of students beneath him.

Little cries of surprise and joy filled the room as the students widened their eyes, looking ecstatic at the, for once, happy news.

Harry turned to Hermione and Ron fully, smiling widely, and for the first time he felt really excited at the news Dumbledore had given them.

Hermione and Ron were grinning too, especially Hermione, who looked like she was going to explode. 

“They must be from Ilvermorny then, since that’s the only Wizarding School in the USA” said the witch, in a slightly “know-it-all” tone she used sometimes that drove literally anyone crazy. 

“Do you think they teach different magic at Ilvermorny?” asked Ron, and Hermione throwed a dirty look at him, looking incredibly ready to murder him right then and there. 

With an annoyed tone, she said: “Come on Ron, don’t be silly. Obviously they teach _differently_ , but it’s not like America has got an entirely _different_ school program from ours. Just like at Beaux-”

But before she could proceed to properly lecture Ron and the rest of their Gryffindor housemates about the other wizarding schools’ teaching methods, Dumbledore started talking again, staring intently at all the students who were still talking instead of paying attention.

The Headmaster had not lost his cheerfulness from before, but as he added a new piece of news to what he had said previously, his face looked definitely more serious than how it had few moments prior. 

“But, my dear students, our beloved guests are not wizards, or at least not our conventional conception of a wizard”.

Loud whispers erupted inside the Great Hall as students shared their thoughts about the situation to their housemates, not mad or scared about the news, just terribly confused about what was happening.

“What?! And what are they supposed to be?” said Ron, wide eyed, effectively resuming the thoughts that were crossing almost everyone’s mind in that moment. He opened his mouth to keep voicing his thoughts, but Neville, who was sitting at his side, was quick to shut him up as he noticed Dumbledore was about to explain it all to them.

“Our new students are, in fact, demigods. Half God, half mortal, just like the heroes in your mythology books. The Gods are, and I beg you to believe me when I say this, real”. 

All the murmurs and whispers which had animated the crowd of students were completely silenced by Dumbledore’s last words, and a thick, absolute silence descended upon the room, silencing even the chattiest students.

Harry, now speechless as the rest of his peers, finally decided to turn his head to the Slytherin table and meet Draco’s eyes, the very same ones which had never left him and he had desperately tried to avoid all evening. 

Once his eyes settled on the blonde’s figure, Harry found that Draco looked unusually unpoised. 

His big gray eyes, which from the outside always looked cool and in control, were now open wide in astonishment. His mouth was hanging slightly agape but he wasn’t doing anything to cover it, as Harry knew he would do, as if he hadn’t realized it was open yet. Harry felt a strangely startling feeling running through his spine at the sight of him like that.

He had never seen such an expression on Draco, who prided himself in his ability to keep his cool even in the worst nerve-wracking situations, but now looked like he’d lost every bit of composure his parents had taught him since age three. 

As soon as Draco noticed Harry was looking at him, he seemed to instantly snap out of his confusional state.

He mouthed a rushed _‘Did you know anything about this?’_ in the Gryffindor’s direction, to which Harry quickly denied with a gesture of his head. 

_‘I would have told you, if I did’_ , mouthed back Harry, watching as Draco, after reading his lips, swiftly recuperated his usual snobbish posture and crossed his arms across his chest.

_‘Obviously you would have’._

Two twin smirks found their way on the boys’ faces, who kept looking at each other in the eyes playfully, and seemed to have forgotten all about the chaos that was going on in the Great Hall.

“The Goddess of Magic herself, Hecate, planned this..ehm..‘exchange program’, and sent us the most powerful of the demigods of Camp Half-Blood, the training camp of the greek demigods.

“They, just like us, recently had to fight in a war, much bigger than ours in all truth, and Lady Hecate saw this moment of newfound peace as an opportunity to find each other again”.

_A war much bigger than ours._

Harry couldn’t help but shiver, and he suddenly felt sick in his stomach, like he was about to vomit. 

The thought of the second war against Voldemort felt like a bloody nightmare to him, and if Dumbledore was not exaggerating, which was certainly the case, then what those demigods had gone through must have been terrifying to say the very least. 

“Either way, I hope you will all welcome our guests in the best possible way, and that everyone will have a wonderful year here at Hogwarts” said Dumbledore before sitting back on his seat at the centre of the professors’ table.

Then, just as he sat down, the door of the Great Hall opened with a noisy creek, revealing the figures of nine persons, who were partially illuminated by the lights of the candles that were scattered all over the Great Hall.

The bigger of those figures was Hagrid’s, who with his usual warm smile on was leading the rest of the group inside the Hall, raising his left arm as a greeting for his students and his colleagues at the professors’ table.

Harry smiled at the sight of his friend, and moved his focus to the group of teenagers behind him, who were walking steadily across the room and, frankly, looked more powerful than any person Harry had ever seen in his life. 

They must have all been around Harry’s age, but by the way they behaved, to Harry they seemed much older and wiser than him. 

They carried their chins high, but they didn’t appear posh, not like Draco or the other Slytherins did, and the pace of their walk was fast but not too rushed, or anxious, like his usually was. 

They looked as if they had just walked out of the battlefield, powerful, as if they were able to end you with a simple glance, an air of invincibility surrounding them and making them look untouchable.

Like literal Gods, actually.

As he focused on the looks of amazement on their faces though, Harry was relieved to find they couldn’t that be much different from them.

Right behind Hagrid there was a short, tanned boy with frizzy brown hair who was pointing at the roof of the Great Hall to a beautiful girl that walked beside him. The two were staring wide eyed at the moving sky above their heads, their lips curled in such awed smiles that Harry felt kind of warm at the sight.

Behind them, there were two girls and four boys, who seemed as enchanted as the other two by the Hall’s looks. They looked around as if they weren’t able to tear their eyes away from the colourful banners on the walls, or the crowd of pale ghosts that were dancing above their heads. 

Harry noticed some of them had curiously stopped dancing to come down, and were now bowing respectfully to a lean but still very powerful-looking boy and a dark skinned girl with long, curly brown hair.

The two nodded at them but didn’t stop walking, and their friends didn’t seem surprised in the slightest at the sight, unlike the rest of the Hall, who was staring wide eyed at the ghosts' unusual behaviour.

The group finally reached the the end of Hall and were now standing in front of professor McGonagall, who greeted them with a silent nod and a warm, welcoming smile.

“Welcome to the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry of Hogwarts, demigods. We will now proceed with our new students’ Sorting. I’m going to call your names and when you hear yours, you go sit on the stall and the Sorting Hat will sort you in one of our four Houses. I trust you already know about them?”

“Yes, ma’am, we do” replied in a calm tone a tall, muscular boy, who really looked like a soldier. He had his arms crossed over his chest but didn’t look defensive in the slightest. Actually, he had a very comforting presence, and something in the way he carried himself made Harry think of a general.

McGonagall smiled sweetly at him. “Perfect then. As soon as the Hat proclaims his decision, the Prefects of your house will lead you to your House’s table. Now, let’s start. Calypso, Queen of Ogygia”.

The crowd of students simply stared as the beautiful girl from before stepped up and sat on the little stall.

McGonagall then placed the Hat on top of Calypso’s honey blonde hair, which were tied in a beautiful, intricate long braid. After a pair of seconds, the hat soundly shouted “RAVENCLAW!!!”, and Harry saw Padma Patil and Anthony Goldstein, which were the newly appointed Ravenclaw Prefects for their Year, making their way to the stall anxiously, nearly tripping over the tablecloth. 

They greeted the girl and led her to the Ravenclaw table, looking both amazed and utterly terrified. 

Hermione was staring dumbfounded at the three walking figures, and quickly mumbled: “McGonagall said Queen of Ogygia! That’s Calypso, like, _that_ Calypso!”.

“And I should know her?” said Ron, making Dean and Neville chuckle slightly.

At that, Hermione scoffed. “Merlin Ron, I wouldn’t expect you to have read the _Odyssey_ , but literally everyone knows the story of Ulysses and Calypso!”

She looked ready to tell them the whole story too, but for the second time that day, she was miraculously interrupted, this time by McGonagall’s steady voice.

“di Angelo, Nico” called McGonagall, and the pale boy whom the ghosts had bowed to before went to take Calypso’s place on the stall.

The Hat that time took a little more than a few moments to decide, but in the end, put Nico in Slytherin. Draco and Pansy quickly but still very gracefully got to Nico’s place and introduced themselves, offering the boy a handshake, which he silently took. 

When the three of them had reached their table and had seated down, McGonagall looked back at her list and called “Grace, Jason”. 

The tall, well-built boy that looked like a general stepped up, walked over the stall and sat down with his gaze staring right in front of himself. He really looked like a soldier, seating as uncomfortably still and stiff as he was, in waiting.

“That guy is kind of scary”, Neville mumbled, snd Ron and Seamus nodded in agreement.

“He looks like he just completed an army mission or something. It’s kinda strange, if you ask me”, added the redheaded.

Harry didn’t think it was strange at all, since according to Dumbledore they had _fought_ in a war, but decided not to voice his thoughts, and simply ignored Ron’s comment.

“GRYFFINDOR!!!” shouted the Hat, and Ron suddently became significantly paler. Thanks to Godric though Hermione rose up quickly, and dragged Ron along with her to retrieve their new housemate. 

Seamus grinned, looking at Jason’s figure, which was now approaching their table in company of Hermione and Ron.

“Actually, I’m really happy to have a new housemate. Especially if he looks like _that_ ”. 

Dean scoffed and crossed his arms, rolling his eyes at Seamus. Harry could tell his friend was about to say something to him, but Hermione, Ron and Jason had already joined them and were now sitting down at the table.

“Jason, these are Harry, Seamus, Dean and Neville” said Hermione, pointing at every boy as she said their names. Jason flashed them a big smile and offered his hand to all them, introducing himself in return.

“Is it always like this, here? I mean, the ghosts, and the floating candles, and the sky..?” said him, scratching the back of his neck with his right hand. 

He looked nervous and completely different from the cold hearted, powerful soldier that had sat on that stall, and Harry could sense that the ones who had felt intimidated by him now were starting to warm up to him.

Harry smiled at the demigod, trying to make him at ease, not sure if he actually was, and listened to Hermione excitedly telling him all about the spells that made the roof of the Hall look like a serene summer night sky.

The Sorting on the other end was not done yet, and McGonagall called the next name of the list.

“Levesque, Hazel”. Jason looked back at where his other friends stood, watching intently as McGonagall placed the Hat on the dark skinned girl’s head, and grinning slightly.

“Me and my friend Leo have a bet going on about where the Hat would put Hazel. I said Ravenclaw, since she’s a very studious person, but he claims Hazel will be in Gryffindor” explained him, laughing quietly as he placed a hand to hold his chin.

“I’m not really into bets, but this one sounded far too easy to win, in all honesty” said he, and then turned back to Hazel and the Hat. In that very moment, anyway...

“HUFFLEPUFF!!!” shouted the Hat, and Ernie McMillan and Hannah Abbott stood up. 

Harry turned to Jason to look at his face, and he nearly burst out laughing at the bewildered expression on the blonde-haired boy. 

Clearly embarrassed, Jason shuddered and tried to laugh. “Well… That’s exactly why I’m not fond of bets. I hardly ever win anyway”.

That had made the Gryffindors laugh wholeheartedly, and Seamus even patted Jason on the shoulder, saying: “Sometimes that’s how it goes”, which had made them laugh even harder.

“McLean, Piper”.

“Oh, that’s my best friend!” said Jason, his glaze once again focused on the stoll, as an athletic girl with little blue beads braided in her hair came up to take her turn on the little stall.

“SLYTHERIN!!!” shouted the Hat, and Draco and Pansy rose up from their seats again, walking through the Hall in their usual elegant way. 

Harry saw Draco offer his hand to Piper, who took it, and Pansy greeting her with a smug but sincere smile. The three then walked back to their table, Piper’s hand still held in Draco’s elegantly, as they sat down at the centre of the table, next to Blaise and the other demigod who had been sorted into Slytherin, Nico.

“Solace, William!”

A very tanned (and very handsome, too) curly haired boy sat down, looking nervous but at the same time very excited.

Before McGonagall could fully put the Hat on his sunkissed blonde head, it shouted “HUFFLEPUFF!!!”, and the two Hufflepuff Prefects got up once again, to lead William to their table.

“Will couldn’t wait for this day to arrive. He’s a doctor, the best doctor at Camp, actually, and Hecate promised him he would learn lots of things here” said Jason, and Harry glanced at the curly haired figure, who was now shaking Cedric Diggory’s hand and was looking positively beaming at his seat at the Hufflepuff’s table.

Dean looked confused at Jason’s words. “Excuse me, did you say he’s a doctor? But he’s our age!”.

Jason simply smiled, and said: “Will’s dad is Apollo, the God of the Sun. He’s also the God of Music, and Archery, and lots of other things really, Healing included. He got the gift of Healing, so he’s naturally a good doctor. But he’s always looking for new ways to improve the treatments we have at Camp”.

 _Draco and him would make really good friends_ , Harry thought instantly, remembering that hot summer afternoon in which Draco had told him he wanted to become a healer, once he was out of Hogwarts.

“Anyway, now’s my friend Leo’s turn” said Jason.

Harry looked back at the stall, which was now occupied by the short boy he had first seen when the demigods had made their entrance in the Great Hall.

By the look on his face, Harry could tell Leo was a troublemaker. He had the same irreverent smirk that Fred and George shared, and Harry was sure this was not going to be a calm year _in the slightest_ , at least not if Leo and the Weasley twins met.

“RAVENCLAW!!!” exclaimed the Hat, and as soon as Leo had reached the Ravens’ table, he sat down on the bench next to Calypso and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek, looking radiant.

“They look so cute together” said Hermione smiling softly, and Jason nodded in agreement, smiling fondly at the sight of the two Ravenclaws sitting next to each other. 

“They argue almost all the time, but it’s mostly playful banter. And now that they’re the only couple in the same House, their housemates really don’t know what’s going to hit them” Jason laughed, and readjusted his glasses on his nose with his finger.

“After everything they went through to be together, though, they deserve to stay as close as they can to each other, so I’m not really complaining”.

Jason laughed again, looking at Calypso and Leo, and Harry wondered once again what could have happened to them.

“Zhang, Frank” was the last name McGonagall called, and the last one of the demigods standing made his way to the stall. He wasn’t very tall, but by the look of his biceps Harry was fairly sure he could smash a watermelon as if it were nothing.

The Hat on his head shouted “GRYFFINDOR!!!”, and once again, Hermione and Ron led their new Gryffindor to the table.

Jason and Frank greeted each other with a powerful (and kinda painful looking, too) thwack on the back. The boy turned to them, flashing them a big smile.

“Hello everyone, my name’s Frank” said the boy, offering his hand to each one of them just like Jason had done. 

As the food started appearing on the tables, the group had began a tentative conversation.

“Soo.. Who’s your dad, or mom?” had asked Hermione, as she took her portion of mashed potatoes. “You’re not forced to answer of course, if you don’t want to”.

Frank sent her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, that’s no big deal. My father is Mars, the roman god of War. Not a really loving father, but no God or Goddess is, anyway”.

“Yeah, sadly that’s very true. Mine’s Jupiter, still roman, but he’s the God of the Sky. Again, not really loving”.

“And your moms?” said Ron, who seemingly didn’t care about making a good impression on their new friends and was eating like a savage, as he usually did.

“Ron, for Godric’s sake, behave like a normal person for once and stop eating like a bloody starving raccoon!” Hermione shook her head in disapproval, quietly mumbling to herself as she reached for the salt.

“Don’t tell me what to do, miss Know-It-All, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a meal!”

“Yes there is, if you devour it like some hungry hyena!”

Harry simply stared at his two best friends, for once happy that they had started bantering. 

Ron’s slightly insensitive question had been long forgotten by the two, but Harry had seen the slight change in the demigods’ faces at his friend's question, and had instantly known what it was about.

He sent them a genuine smile, rolling his eyes in overly-exaggerated annoyance, and whispered “Welcome to my world” softly, with a cheerful, playful tone, hoping it would be enough to make them forget about Ron’s question.

It seemed to, because the two started laughing again, as if nothing had been said, and Seamus decided to introduce them to Quidditch.

They passed the rest of their dinner talking loudly about Quidditch and the Hogwarts’ House Cup, getting to know each other through jokes and relatively safe questions.

When it was time, they headed back to the common room. The second they opened the door though, Harry saw his snowy owl Hedwig perched on a wooden chair with a little note in her beak, fluttering her wings and looking rather impatient.

He went to remove the little piece of parchment from Hedwig's beak, and stared at the elegant and sophisticated handwriting of the message, which he immediately recognized.

He smiled fondly, slightly shaking his head in disbelief, as he read the message a second time. 

_Meet us at the Howlery, and be quick, our asses are freezing down here.  
Take Jason and Frank too._

_D._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hogwarts, finally!
> 
> I hope you liked this chapter<3


	4. Buzzcut Season

Chapter Four

Buzzcut Season

⸙

The night of the first day of school back at Hogwarts, after supper, most kids went straight to bed.

There was in fact some sort of common decency inhabiting the minds of literally every student that stopped even the most rebellious ones, who usually found great pleasure in breaking rules, from doing anything even slightly against the rules the first night back at Hogwarts.

Maybe it was their parents’ recommendations, their warnings still fresh on their minds, or maybe it was because getting caught in any sort of trouble the very _first_ day of school after not seeing your classmates for almost three months felt like something simply _too_ embarrassing to endure.

Anyway, for the majority of the magical school’s student population, it was not a kind of behaviour that lasted very long. 

And Draco Malfoy, heir of one of the most powerful pureblood families of the Wizarding World, student with exceptionally good marks and an immaculate reputation as one of the most obedient students of his year, wasn’t, obviously, any different. 

He was just better at not getting caught.

And since he didn’t really care about the unspoken “First Night Rule”, that night instead of going back to the Slytherin dorms he and his friends were up the Owlery Tower, talking quietly among themselves, waiting for the Gryffindors to arrive.

_And freezing our asses off._

The fierce coolness of the black stone pressed against his back was sending awful chills of cold down his back, and he scoffed, aware that the light robes he was wearing were practically useless in the ice cold room. 

But even though the cold weather was starting to get on his nerves, he was determined not to show any trace of annoyance on his face, just as his Mother had taught him to do.

Instead, he discreetly crossed his arms over his chest in a vain attempt to warm himself up, still maintaining a pleasant and calm expression on his face, as he listened to Blaise talking to Nico and Piper, the new demigod students who had been sorted in Slytherin just an hour before.

The five of them had got along since the very first moment they had sat together at the Slytherin table, when they had easily slipped into a cheery conversation. Draco had appreciated Nico’s cutting sarcasm and Piper’s humor, as Pansy and Blaise had, and Draco couldn’t help but noticing how Pansy in particular had seemed to be very interested in the girl, probably happy to finally have a girl in the group, and had never stopped looking at her during dinner.

Sometimes, Draco wondered whether Pansy liked to be the only girl in their Trio. Sure, he had never seen her hanging out with other girls, so maybe she wasn’t interested in them, but he couldn’t be sure. Afterall, most of the Slytherin girls in their year were awful to have around, anyway.

He didn’t like them much, with the sole exception of Daphne Greengrass, who was the least annoyingly bratty of them all and actually had been quite nice to talk to that time he’d had to work with her for a Potions’ assignment.

Either way, even though Pansy never showed any interest in having girl friends, Draco sometimes caught her staring at the little groups of Slytherin girls who would sit beside the fireplace in the common room, laughing and braiding each other’s hair while talking animatedly about… well, whatever girls talked about. 

She would pretend to be reading a book, or writing an assignment, but Draco knew better, and he couldn’t help but feel that maybe she felt left out, in their mostly-male group.

He saw how sad and conflicted she looked after diverting her gaze from them, chewing on her bottom lip as she quietly closed her book or put down her quill and headed back to her room, “to put them back into place”. 

Draco felt his heart break a little bit more every time he saw his best friend sadly getting up from the dark green armchair she usually sat on and retreat to her bedroom, slowly, like she had just lost a battle. And he was sick of it. He was sick of Pansy being sad and miserable.

He had wanted to talk to her the moment he had noticed, but Pansy always seemed to dodge his questions incredibly well, to the point that Draco had understood that getting her to talk about her feelings that way was practically impossible, and had gave up trying.

Maybe that year she would find the girl best-friend she was (at least apparently) craving in Piper, and she would finally stop moaning over other girls’ friendships.

He genuinely hoped so.  
Draco knew Pansy could look like a mean, self-entitled brat from the outside, but to anyone who bothered to get to know her, it was clear just how friendly and loyal and funny Pansy truly was.  
How much of a great friend she could be, if you gave her a chance.

“So, you talked about superpowers. What kind of superpowers?” asked Pansy to the two demigods, who were standing right in front of her and were softly petting Nico’s snowy owl, Bianca.

The pale demigod boy chuckled slightly, letting Bianca climb over his arm and settle on his shoulder to play with his raven hair.

“It sounds cool from the outside, but believe us, it really isn’t.” he said, and all of a sudden his smile didn’t quite reach his eyes anymore.

The Slytherins pretended not to notice.

“Yeah, well. Honestly most of the time being a demigod simply sucks. But it’s not like we have any control over it.” said Piper. 

From her tone alone, Draco could have sworn she didn’t seem affected by what she was saying in the slightest.  
Draco, though, was looking at her right in the eyes, and it was clear that whatever these kids’ lives had been, they had surely been full of utter Hippogriff shit.

Piper smiled anyway, and started telling them about her ability to get people to do whatever she wanted, which sounded quite an interesting and useful skill to have, at least to Draco.

As he listened to her talking though, Draco was still mentally cursing himself for his decision to meet the Gryffindors in the bloody Owlery. He should have known they would be freezing up there in the Tower, and given that the Gryffindors seemed to _always_ be late for literally everything, he should have predicted they were going to freeze to death before any of the three would bother to get back to their dormitory and find the note he had left them.

“Hey, Slytherin menaces, are you here?”

Draco really didn’t think there was going to be another occasion in which he would be this happy to be proven wrong by a Weasley.

At the sound the redhead’s voice Blaise let out a cry of happiness in his exquisitely sarcastic fashion, taking an hand to his forehead and dramatically leaning over Pansy, who was struggling to keep them both from falling on the dirty floor with the little force in her not very muscled arms.

“You sure took your sweet time, Ronald,” sang Blaise, still mockingly dramatic, as the Gryffindors took the little elevator to get to the second floor of the Owlery.

Draco heard Harry’s laughter from the other side of the room, and mentally cursed himself again as he felt his cheeks redden alarmingly fast at the sweet, clear sound. 

He tried to pull himself together, smoothing his robes out with his hands, as he tried desperately to make his expression look as calm and in control as it had been before the Gryffindor’s arrival.

But in all honesty, after an entire evening of watching Harry laughing from afar ( _discreetly_ ) and not being able to join him, Draco found it incredibly difficult to stop his face from betraying his feelings.

“Not really my fault if you decided to meet _here_ , of all places.” replied Ron as the group of Gryffindors walked to them, chuckling slightly at the sight of Blaise’s ridiculous pose.

Blaise simply chuckled back, leaving behind the dramatics to offer a handshake to the two new Gryffindor boys, who smiled at him and took his hand in a confident shake.

“Blaise Zabini. These are my best-friends, Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson.” said Blaise pointing at the two of them, who had in the meantime walked across the room, ready to meet the demigods.

“Piper, Nico, these are Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.” added Blaise, one of his little smirks gracing his lips.

After the various introductions, the group got back to what they were discussing before the Gryffindors’ arrival.

“So, as I was telling you, for some time I’ve had this thing called cornucopia-”, started saying Piper before getting interrupted by the sound of Jason’s laughter, who at the word “cornucopia” had started giggling.

He tried to cover his mouth with his hand in an attempt to muffle out the sound, and even though he wasn’t exactly succeeding, Draco could tell he was genuinely trying not to annoy Piper more than he had already. 

Piper cast a dirty look at Jason and rolled her eyes in annoyance, but still turned her head to the wizards and started talking again. 

“Which basically let me summon any sort of food and water. At first, I thought that was, like, the most useless thing ever, because how can some food help you defeat a bunch of monsters who want to kill you?!

“...Then, well, I still found it terribly useless, but I learned to respect its power a little bit more when the amount of food from two supermarkets came crushing over Hercules’ head and definitely KO-ed him.”

_Holy shit. Merlin._

Draco felt words abandon him, as if he hadn’t any ability of speech left, and saw his friends go pale and stare wide-eyed at the demigod, just as incredulous as him.

“In the end, it actually was quite useful,” she continued, pensievely scratching her chin, seemingly not noticing the confused stares the wizards were directing at her.

The first who seemed to snap out of that mortifyingly long state of catalepsy was Hermione, who gently shook her head and stuttered:

“Are you saying you defeated Hercules? With some food?! Wasn’t he supposed to be the greatest demigod to ever exist? Invincible?”

Draco noticed Nico throwing a quick glance at Jason and Frank, his hand still slowly going through his owl’s feathers. He looked serious, just as usual, but somehow kind of pained too, like their reaction had brought some sort of nostalgia to him. Maybe he thought Hercules was invincible too, before Piper had proved them wrong?

Frank shuddered as he scratched his neck, but gently explained to her: “No demigod is really invincible, no matter how powerful they are or how many quests they’ve gone on. We all have some fatal flaw that determines our demise.”

Jason crossed his arms and snorted, suddenly looking rather annoyed. “Oh, but he surely was the greatest douchebag to ever exist,” he said, and the rest of the demigods, after receiving other confused stares by the wizards, started telling them about all the horrible things the alleged hero had done to them and generally, just how much of a dick he truly was.

After he had listened to all of their stories about Hercules, Draco felt a little lost. He thought he knew lots about greek mythology, which was one of his biggest interests, but now that the demigods had told them that the one hero who was supposed to be the _greatest_ actually was a fucking jerk, he felt kind of.. hollow. Like everything he had ever believed had turned out to be a lie.

“I don’t know about you, but tomorrow I’m throwing Mother’s mythology books off the Astronomy Tower.” said Draco, making both the demigods and his wizard friends burst out laughing.

“Or, we could spare them from that horrible, _horrible_ fate and bring them with us the next time we meet up. Just so that you can tell us what other things our mythology texts got wrong or forgot to mention.” proposed Pansy with her typical sly, playful grin on as she looked at the demigods. 

Nico stared back at her, smirking mischievously, his pale arms crossed over his chest and Bianca still perched on his right shoulder. 

“We’ll definitely have to do that. I can’t wait to tell you about Dionysus… Believe me, you’re definitely going to be.. _surprised_ ,” he said, and behind him Piper smiled knowingly, just as Jason did.

“But next time, we’re inviting the others too.”

⸙⸙

The following day, after a night of good rest, Piper got up from her bed at six thirty and started getting ready for her first day of lessons at Hogwarts.

The prior night at the Owlery had been nice, and after returning to the dorms and meeting the girls she was sharing a room with, she found that she really liked her roommates too. 

Pansy and the other two girls she had been paired with were funny, and witty, and overall seemed interested in being her friend, simply because they found her interesting too, and not just because she was the latest news at school (let alone because her father was a famous Hollywood star, which was a thing she had conveniently forgotten to mention to anyone).

That morning she got out of the bathroom after having brushed her teeth and found the other girls awake but still lying on their beds, giggling softly at whatever Millicent, a nice girl with black hair and brown eyes, was telling them.

“Oh, good morning Piper! Millie was just telling us about that one time her snake accidently bit her Father’s pinkie.” greeted Daphne, who was laying down above the forest green covers of her bed, her head propped up, smiling softly at her.

Piper smiled back at her and the other girls, and sat down on Pansy’s bed to listen to Millicent describing in detail her father’s ridiculously scared face when he had felt the tiny little teeth of her one year old mexican black kingsnake bite down the sensitive skin of his finger.

She even made an impression of her Father vigorously shaking his arm up and down to scare the little snake to hopefully shake it off his hand, not understanding that by doing that he’d just get him to hold harder onto his finger.

Pansy looked like she could almost choke from all the laughter, smiling widely at the other girls, who were laughing just as hard, but she eventually calmed down and got up from her bed, stretching her arms a little over her head.

“Come on ladies, we’ll miss breakfast if we don’t get up now.” groaned Pansy as she headed to the bathroom, her bathrobe and uniform in her hands.

“Don’t take too long in there, we need to get ready too!” Daphne screamed loudly, to make sure the girl could hear her even through the dark wooden door of the bathroom, which the girl had already closed behind her.

Piper watched as the other girls around her got ready while trying to understand how to successfully knot her silver and green tie, which revealed itself to be quite the challenge.

It had sounded rather easy at first, but in reality it wasn’t at all, and in the end it had been Millicent who had tied it for her. Piper thanked her profusely and made a mental note to ask her how she did it later that day, after classes.

Once they were all ready, the girls headed together to the Great Hall. Pansy and Piper parted from the rest of their roommates to sit down next to Blaise and Draco at the centre of the Slytherin table. 

It was then that the daughter of Aphrodite noticed Nico was not at the table with them, but was instead sitting with the Hufflepuff’s, between Will and Hazel.

She smiled softly at the sight of the three of them together, and found she didn’t really mind if Nico decided to “ditch” her during meals to spend some time with his boyfriend and sister. Afterall, it wasn’t like she wasn’t in good company with the Slytherins. 

As she and Pansy sat down at the table, Piper noticed Draco, who definitely wasn’t a morning person judging from the sleepy look on his face, forced himself to smile at her and greeted her politely over his cup of tea. 

From what she could tell from the little time she had known him, Draco had a hard time leaving politeness behind. He seemed to care a lot about looks and impressions, but not in spite of vanity. It was like he wanted to prove at all costs he was well-mannered, easy and pleasant to have around. Almost like he was scared of people not liking him.

_Here it is, the Aphrodite senses strike again._

“How come you’ve never wished me good morning in the past five years we’ve been friends, but to Piper you do?” complained Pansy in fake annoyance as she spread strawberry jam on a slice of toast.

Draco simply ignored and turned his attention to Piper again, meaning to ask her how she had found the Slytherin dorms, if she had liked them. 

Piper smiled at the question, and momentarily let go of her conspiracy theories about Draco’s behaviour to answer him. 

“When Hecate told us they were in the dungeons, the first image that crossed my mind was one of a terribly dusty and humid place, practically uninhabitable, but after actually seeing it yesterday night, I can honestly say I freaking love it!” said the demigod, excited, recalling how she had felt the moment she had entered the dimly-lit, comfortable-looking common room of Slytherin House.

There was something about the exquisitely decadent aesthetic of green velvet armchairs and mahogany floors that gave the Slytherin common room a sense of pure luxury. Almost as if it were the sitting room of some kind of aristocrat, and not just a simple common room for teenagers to meet up. Sweeping through the dormitories’ halls and corridors, which were just as opulently decorated as the common room, had made Piper feel inexplicably powerful, in some sort of way, like she was a queen in her personal castle. Which was strange for her, since she didn’t usually like those kinds of things.

She had to admit that at first sight, the whole look of her dorm room had felt quite dramatic, with all the greenish, dim lights, the richly decorated walls and the silk sheets on their beds, but she ended up loving them the second she sat on her four-posted bed and almost moaned out loud for how soft and comfy it felt.

And even though it was a bit cold and the greenish light and motion of the lake above their heads gave off a rather creepy atmosphere (or at least it did at one in the morning), it was beautiful, and after having seen all of that, Piper wasn’t sure she would move to any other House, even if she could.

“Well I’m glad you like Slytherin, because, first period you’re going to find out why people hate us Slytherins so much.” said Blaise, after wiping his mouth with a white napkin. 

“Severus Snape, the Potions’ professor,” clarified Draco, looking at Blaise with a slightly vexed expression. “And he’s not the sole reason everyone hates us. He’s a dick, yes, but Slytherin House has always been the least liked of all.”

Piper looked at them slightly confused, and asked: “And why is that? People don’t understand sarcasm?”

At that, the three Slytherins laughed bitterly. “Well, that’s certainly one of the reasons. But the fact is, most people think Slytherin is the House of the Evil, since most dark wizards were in Slytherin. 

“The last one, being.. well, Lord Voldemort.” Pansy paused, probably waiting for a reaction from Piper, but to the demigod the name didn’t sound familiar at all.

“Something tells me I should know about him, but I have no clue who this Voldemort is.” said Piper, watching as a look of incredulity blossomed over Draco’s face. He shook his head as he passed a hand through his platinum blonde hair, looking dumbfounded but still careful not to mess it up too much.

“Excuse me, are you saying Dumbledore told you nothing about the Dark Lord?” whispered Blaise, looking at Piper with his brows furrowed and mouth slightly agape, looking rather confused.

Pansy was leaning on the table, a hand on her temple, slowly massaging it in circular motions. It was clear from the expression on her face she couldn’t believe the Headmaster hadn’t told them about this dark wizard, and frankly, having understood it was kind of a major thing, Piper was starting to ask herself why he didn’t, too.

Pansy simply sat her hand down on the table, and exclaimed: “We’ll tell you all about this later, at the library, when all of your other friends are with us. Now we have to move, or we’ll be late for class.”

After she’d said those words they sat up and left the Great Hall, directed to the first class of the year, Potions. 

“By the way, you still haven’t told me why people think Snape is a jerk,” said Piper as they went down the stairs that led to the dungeons.

“Oh Merlin, don’t say that! Here even walls have ears, and I’d prefer not to get yelled at by Snape at eight in the morning.” Draco said sheepishly, meanwhile Blaise just started giggling quietly.

“Dear, as soon as you’ll meet him, you’ll understand.”

And Blaise had, in fact, been right.

When they had entered the classroom almost half of their classmates were still at breakfast, so they’d been able to choose among the best places to sit. 

Draco, who Piper had learnt was a bookworm and the boy with the highest marks in their year, had chosen to sit in the first row, to “show the professor he cared about the subject”. 

He had also reserved the place next to him for Hermione Granger, the Gryffindor girl he was friends with and another extremely studious person. 

The night before Pansy had told her that Draco and Hermione before becoming friends had always been furiously battling each other for the title of best student of the year, studying to the point of getting sick in order to do better than the other.

In the end Granger had always won (fact that irritated Draco to no end), but the boy was nonetheless proud to say he’d always had better scores than her in Potions, his favourite subject. He had worked hard all summer to keep the lead, brewing potions which should have been far too advanced for an O.W.L level wizard, but that he had had almost no problem making.

Piper didn’t know why, but the image of Draco and Hermione pulling all-nighters of intense studying simply because of their pride and stubbornness had made a fond smile blossom spontaneously on her pink lips. Were these the challenges normal teenagers had? They seemed.. extraordinarily nice, compared to saving the world and killing monsters daily in order to survive.

Leaving Draco sitting in the front row, Blaise, Pansy and her had decided to sit in the fifth row of desks that was found at the exact middle of the room, not too forward, nor too far back. 

A few minutes passed before some other students had entered the room, and after some more time Piper saw their Gryffindors friends arrive too, together with Nico, Will and Hazel, who had greeted them soundly and had decided to sit in the row behind theirs.

As soon as the last students had taken their seats, a tall, sour-looking man entered the room with the force ( _and the dramatics_ ) of a hurricane, his cape swinging wildly behind him, in a way that resembled Hecate’s black cloud of smoke a little.

Without even greeting them or asking how their summer had been (like most professors, or at least the ones Piper had met, always did on the first day of classes), he just stood behind his desk, staring down at them as if they were some sort of repulsive, disgusting worms he felt the absolute need to get rid of.

After a long silence, the man spoke, looking at Piper’s direction: “I see we have some of our honoured guests, here.”

Snape’s frown deepened as he eyed them, one by one, his mouth bent in a bitter, resentful smirk. 

“I know you, just as Mr. Potter here, believe you’re some sort of celebrities, but believe me, who your parents are doesn’t matter, in this class. Don’t expect to be treated differently, because that’s not going to happen. Don’t expect to receive any kind of help either, because your parents can’t help you here,” he said as he walked the length of the classroom in long, measured steps, taking prolonged dramatic pauses between one sentence and the other.

Piper heard Nico’s loud growl of displeasure from behind her, and instinctively closed her eyes, suddenly knowing full well class was not going to end well.

Just as she feared in fact, Nico’s anger-filled voice soundly rebounded in the completely silent classroom, sounding intimidating and furious.

“And I wouldn’t expect them to, professor. My father doesn’t help me even when I’m risking getting killed, he’s not going to go through the trouble of telling me the right answers for a test.”

The students in the room gasped loudly at Nico’s words, unable to believe what they had just heard. 

Almost no one, in their five years of experience at Hogwarts, had dared to talk back to Snape, fearing a terrible punishment in return. Snape’s wrath was something no one wanted to face, ever, and talking back was literally the fastest way to unleash the bastard’s inner hyena. 

Potions class was like Snape’s personal reign of terror, and the professor certainly didn’t refrain from punishing harshly the students who went against his “teaching methods”, or whom simply he didn’t like.  
That was why most people in Snape’s Potions class simply aspired to be invisible at the man’s eyes, hoping not to get on his bad side by getting too much attention on themselves.

Facing him like this? No one in their right mind at Hogwarts would have done that.

No one, except apparently Nico di Angelo.

Snape turned around promptly, walking straight to Nico’s desk. The demigod was staring back at the professor, his arms crossed over his chest, looking murderous and ready to fight him.

Will was on his side, moving his gaze cautiously from Nico to the quickly approaching professor, looking slightly worried but clearly not willing to stop Nico from saying what he wanted to say. 

Snape stopped right in front of the Italian, who didn’t back up and kept holding his gaze, almost daring to ask him more about his disgraces. 

Piper knew Nico would certainly enjoy the look on the man’s face if he ever told him about everything he had been through. But, in the end, she also knew that doing something like that would do more harm than good anyway, since Snape seemed to be quite the heartless bastard. 

“Mr…”.

“di Angelo”.

Snape, with his mouth still curved in a disgusted sneer, just stood in front of him and stared, maybe hoping that Nico would, in the end, get too scared by his intimidating gaze to continue with that defiant attitude.

Too bad he didn’t know, like Piper and Will did, that Nico wasn’t going to back off for anything in the world.

“Mr. di Angelo. I don’t know where you got the impression that anyone had asked your opinion upon this matter,” Snape’s icy cold glare intensified, but Nico didn’t look afraid at all.

“But the fact is, Mr. di Angelo, that it doesn’t matter to me whether your parents don’t care about you enough to save you from getting brutally killed.

“I don’t care if that’s actually true or you’re just being melodramatic. The only thing that even remotely resembles importance, to me, is that you shut your mouth this instant and open your book at page 30.”

At Snape’s words, Piper felt like she couldn’t breathe anymore, like the very breath of life had left her body and was now lingering freely in the icy cold air of the potions laboratory.

For a moment, Piper swore she could hear Nico’s heart pounding furiously in his chest, as silent and quiet as the room was. It seemed like every single student was left paralyzed, as if Medusa had just walked into the classroom and petrified them all with a simple, deadly gaze.

Then, after what felt like years of silence, Piper heard the sound of a chair being moved violently, and the air rise up suddenly as someone from the row behind her, probably Nico, stood up and faced Snape.

It wasn’t until moments later, when the person spoke up, that she’d understood that it was Will.

“Excuse me professor, but was it there a reason to be so harsh?” asked the demigod. He sounded confident but not mouthy, like Nico had, and was standing up with a calm look on his face. 

It reminded Piper of how he got when he had to take care of an emergency at the infirmary back at Camp. Cold, efficient, focused.

Snape looked absolutely horrified at Will’s nerve, just like everyone else in the class, but couldn’t get himself to open his mouth. 

Will wasn’t attacking him. He wasn’t yelling, nor throwing a fit.

He simply asked him a question in a calm, collected tone, his face clear of any particular emotions, and he was looking at him without an ounce of judgment or hatred in his eyes.

“It didn’t seem to me that Nico has offended you in any way. He was just stating the truth. You really don’t have to worry about us cheating on tests.” he said, giggling softly, clearly careful to not make it look like he was mocking him.

Snape’s face at Will’s words was absolutely ridiculous. He stood in front of the blond-haired demigod with a furious expression, fingers curled into fists, almost shaking from rage. ‘If looks could kill,’ thought Piper, ‘Snape would have destroyed Will the very second he got up from his chair.’

Will stared at the professor in front of him, clearly waiting for a response from the man, that however never came.

The other man in fact stayed dead silent for excruciatingly long moments before swiftly turning to his desk, as if he were refusing to even _acknowledge_ the fact that the boy had spoken. 

“Open your books at page 30”.

But Will didn’t let it slide, and spoke up again, not afraid in the slightest.

“And I’m sorry professor if you’ll find this disrespectful, but what you said to Nico wasn’t polite, at all”. 

Piper thought he certainly sounded angrier than how he had been before, and maybe it was exactly his slightly different tone, or what his words were suggesting, that made Snape lose his mind.

Snape in fact had turned around and in a matter of seconds was, again, in front of Will’s desk, looking furious.

“Who are you, his lawyer? Let me offer you some free advice: learn to care about yourself first, boy. If you’d choose your battles more wisely, now I wouldn’t have to take 50 points from Hufflepuff”, said the professor, grinning wickedly at the boy, as if a petty punishment like that could stop Will Solace from defending his best friend and boyfriend.

Will looked back at him in absolute rage, gritting his teeth, clearly forcing himself not to yell at Snape, but at the same time ready to talk back.

“What are you punishing me for exactly, professor?” said the demigod quietly but fiercely, still looking at Snape in the eyes.

“I’m not Nico’s lawyer, and Nico knows how to fight for himself perfectly well. He doesn’t need someone to fight his battles for him but this is _my battle_ too, because I care about him and you’ve said an horrible thing even though you know nothing about us” spat then Will, irritated, his fists shaking.

Everyone in the room knew he was going to be neck buried into Hippogriff’s shit by the end of class if he didn’t stop now, but Piper was silently beaming, proud of her friend’s behaviour, and hoped he wouldn’t stop for nothing in the world.

The Hufflepuff still stood, ignoring his classmates’ muffled advice to just stop and let it go, to sit down and apologize. He kept looking at Snape right in the eyes, and Piper swore he looked more powerful and fierce-looking than she had ever seen him.

“And I’m sure you know it was an insensitive thing to say, too. I don’t want to sound disrespectful, but when someone you don’t even _know_ says hurtful things to the people you care about, I think it’s quite natural wanting to defend them”.

At those words words, curiously, Snape didn’t even flinch. It was like he had suddenly been turned into one of Khione’s ice statues, cold, uncaring, a complete stranger to any sort of natural human emotion. Not human enough to understand he was wrong and apologize, not dishuman enough to just let all his hatred and irritation slide.

After a few moments full of heavy silence in fact, he simply diverted his gaze from Will’s sky blue eyes and turned around, heading once again to his desk.

Then he told them for the third, and final time, to open their books, not sparing even a second glance at Will for the rest of the lesson.

⸙⸙⸙

“Dude, let me tell you-- it was freaking awesome!”, said an overjoyed Jason to Will, as he was squeezing him tightly with his right arm.

That afternoon the demigods and the wizards had decided to meet outside near the Black Lake, since it was one of the last sunny days of September and they had every intention to enjoy every single one of them before the unforgiving cold weather of Scotland would force them to spend their days inside of the school. 

Piper, Pansy and Nico were lying on a large blanket on the green grass, facing Draco, who sat under a tree along with Blaise, Harry and Frank and had just finished telling Leo and Calypso what had happened during Potions’ class that morning.

Leo was smiling smugly at Will from the bench of a nearby tree he had climbed upon, careful not to fall and crush down Calypso, who was sitting with Hazel at the feet of the three, right below him.

“Everytime something cool happens Cal and I are never around, it’s incredible”.

Will, who looked terribly embarrassed (but kind of proud, too) from all the attention he was getting, protested. “It wasn’t cool, it was the right thing to do. Besides, it really didn’t help much, since the guy didn’t even bother to answer me”.

“Oh Gods, he’s cool, handsome, heroic, and humble too! Nico, you really have the perfect boyfriend” said Leo teasingly, laying back on the bench and propping his feet up to reach a slightly higher one.

Nico, who in the meantime was staring dumbfounded at Will’s rosy painted cheeks, turned around to shot Leo a death glare. “Shut up Valdez, as you said he’s _my_ boyfriend, not yours”.

“Oh you can keep Doctor Sunshine, don’t worry, my girlfriend is better anyway”.

Calypso had then raised her head to meet his gaze, smiling fondly at him, and simply said “You’re not so bad yourself, Valdez”, with a slight grin that Leo swore made him fall a little more in love with her every time he saw it.

Since their arrival the prior day Calypso had been restless: she walked around like she was living a dream, her green eyes big and amazed, like the ones of a little girl who had just entered a candy store. The moving pictures, the staircases, the ghosts, Leo knew Cal was enjoying literally everything of the Wizarding World so far, even the smallest things.

It was when Anthony and Padma had showed them the Ravenclaw common room, however, that Cal’s eyes had shone brighter than any diamond, and looking at her Leo had felt helpless, and warm, and terribly overjoyed, all at the same time. 

Her eyes had wandered among the high walls of the Ravenclaw Tower, which were completely covered by an absurd number of shelves on which hundreds books seated ordinately, new and ready to be read. 

_Annabeth would have freaking loved this place, that’s for sure._

The greek columns and the elegant white fountain at the center of the room had made him feel at home, like he was at Camp Half-Blood, and Leo couldn’t help but smile at the feeling of warmth the sensation gave him. 

The deep blue and the bronze decorations had somehow made him think of the summer afternoons he had spent working peacefully under the vibrant blue sky, building and creating and caring for his experiments with a kind of serenity he hadn’t experienced in a very long time. 

And the white marbles, the high staircases, the moving portraits...

In other words, the room was simply majestic. Stepping inside of it, Leo had almost felt like he was entering a temple of wisdom and knowledge, and even though the importance some other Ravenclaws seemed to give to books and scholastic achievements was making him a bit anxious (he still had ADHD and dyslexia, _afterall_ ), he couldn’t help but feel like already loved his House.

And he had found he really did when Anthony had told him there were lots of Ravenclaws who were interested in mechanics and would have loved to meet him. The prospect of meeting new people who shared passions with him had filled him with joy, just like when he had found out about his siblings at Cabin 9. He had felt like he had found another place where he belonged.

“Jokes aside, Will, what you did was really fucking brave. Something no one at Hogwarts ever even contemplated doing. It was truly awesome”, said Pansy as she sipped some of her pumpkin juice, and all the other wizards nodded in agreement with her. 

“And don’t say it was pointless. Snape didn’t answer you not because he thought you were wrong, but because _he knew you were right_ ” added Draco, who was munching on a green apple and smiling smugly at the demigod, knowing full well he was right.

“Okay, now stop, let’s talk about something else” said then Will, rolling his eyes fondly at his friends, a rosy flush still painting his cheeks and nose.

“Yeah, Will’s right, let’s talk about something else” said Pansy as she sat up on the pastel orange blanket and crossed her legs, holding her head in her hands.

The Slytherin girl looked at the demigods seemingly deep in thought, until the moment her face suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree. 

“Oh Merlin, I just remembered you don’t know how to play Exploding Snap!” exclaimed the witch, jumping up from her place on the blanket and leaving behind her pumpkin juice.

Frank giggled a bit at Pansy’s dramatic reaction, earning a pointed glare from the girl, who pouted in a very childlike manner and said:

“I’ll let you know that is one of the most horrible crimes you could be charged of here in Hogwarts grounds, and generally speaking, in _all_ the entirety of the Wizarding World” said the witch in fact, playfully picking at Frank’s arm.

“So, to spare all of you from serving a life sentence in Azkaban, we’re going to teach you now. First of all…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it!<3
> 
> First part is just gay pining 'cause last tuesday my mom was being an homophobic asshole and I'm a lesbian


	5. The Pining Club

Chapter Five

The Pining Club

⸙

The first weeks at Hogwarts’ School of Witchcraft and Wizardry didn’t really go the way the demigods had expected to.

It wasn’t like they didn’t like it at Hogwarts. Quite the contrary, actually. 

Except for Snape, the rest of the professors were amazing: capable, interesting, even caring, in some sort of way. Each one of them utilised their own particular method to teach their subjects, and even though Ron thought that thing in particular was actually more confusing than helping, the demigods seemed to appreciate that sort of approach nonetheless.

And it wasn’t like they hadn’t made any friends, either.

The wizards and the demigods had grown pretty close together during those first two weeks of term, so much that they had practically become a single, big group. They had spent much of their time talking about the wars, and the differences among their two worlds, but they had also got to know each other by talking about everyday things.

One day in the Gryffindor common room, as they sat together in front of the fire, Frank had told them that one of their first worries about Hecate’s exchange program had been the students who already studied at Hogwarts. 

_“We thought you wouldn’t accept us. That you would be wary of us, just like human beings usually are when they come across something they don’t know anything about”._

So, Frank had said then, saying that they had been surprised by how things had actually worked out was an abnormally huge understatement.

The first days of school, in fact, they hadn’t gotten any dirty looks thrown at them, like they had feared. No one was scared, or suspicious. 

The moment they had stepped out of their respective dormitories, all they had gotten had been stares.

Stares, and winks.

Stares, and winks, and lots of giggles.

In their common rooms, in the Great Hall, in class, literally anywhere. 

They would walk to class among hordes of heart-eyed, curious pairs of eyes, necks stretched out to get a better view of them, and blushing cheeks.

Even though Ron had never been in that kind of situation, it wasn’t difficult to notice that having all the attention on them everywhere they went wasn’t something the demigods enjoyed much.

Girls and boys alike stared at them walking down the corridors and giggled, seemingly not caring if they noticed them, clearly checking them out from afar. The boldest ones (or the most helpless ones, it depends on the perspective) even made a show of fainting in their friends’ arms every time they saw them, something that was, honestly, plainly ridiculous.

 _“They look like a bunch of squawking geese in heat”_ had said Pansy one time, when they were walking near the Quidditch pitch with Will and Nico, who was soundly complaining about a group of girls they had met that morning in History of Magic. 

“They were practically eye-fucking with us guys, I swear! Do they think they’re subtle?!” the demigod had said, annoyed, playing with the hem of Will’s left sleeve, and gesticulating wildly with the other hand.

Pansy then had spoken her mind, and the brilliant comparison had made everyone laugh wholeheartedly. 

“Don’t worry my dudes, it’ll pass, sooner or later”, Ron had said to the demigods, who didn’t look very relieved by his words but had smiled nonetheless, clearly happy for their support.

Anyway, two weeks into the school year it seemed like the moment everyone left them alone had finally come.

Like any other piece of news in a school full of teenagers, the moment everyone had taken a good look at them all their curiosity had disappeared in the wind, and it had only been a matter of time before they had left them alone.

“Honestly, fucking finally!” said Piper that morning as they walked to Charms, for once not followed by dozens of stares.

She was walking alongside Nico, Will and Jason, her bag hanging from her shoulder, a satisfied little smile on her rosy lips. Behind her, the rest of the Slytherins and the Gryffindors walked calmly, slowly savouring the newfound calmness of the early morning.

Pansy, from beside him, giggled soundly. “Language, Miss McLean! We wouldn’t want McGonagall to scold you _again_ ”, said the witch smirking, watching as Piper’s face turned bright red.

“It was just one time, okay?!”.

Pansy burst out laughing again, and slightly leaned over Ron’s shoulder, resting her head on him. 

Annoyed by the sensation of Pansy’s short raven hair slightly tickling his neck, Ron started giggling uncontrollably and made a show of shoving her roughly from over his shoulder.

“Bloody hell Pansy get off me!” yelled the wizard, scratching his neck like a madman, but still laughing at his friend, who was now standing in front of him with a serene, giggling smile on her face.

Since their two groups had mixed up that fateful summer, Ron and Pansy had unexpectedly become really good friends. 

Contrary to what one could possibly think, in fact, the two purebloods had found they had lots of things in common. They both liked sweets, and Quidditch (even though Pansy loved the Holyhead Harpies, and strongly despised the Chudley Cannons). They both couldn’t stand spiders and hated divination with a passion, but had still chosen to take it that year.

They both liked making fun of their friends practically non-stop, but still loved them unconditionally, to the point of considering them parts of their own families.

And even though their lives and families were very different (being Pansy’s a traditional pureblood family), they had still found a way to become friends, against all odds. Ron couldn’t have been happier.

They continued with their playful banter until they entered the Charms’ classroom, which was already half full of Gryffindor and Slytherin students.

Pansy and Ron, along with Frank and Nico, went to sit on their usual seats in the middle of the third row of desks, while the rest of the group sat in front of them, in the second one.

The moment professor Flitwick entered the room the crowd of loud students quietened down. As soon as the professor told them to practise the new spell they had been studying in pairs, though, every student turned to their partner and a wave of whispers and quiet giggles filled the small room once again.

The past years, Ron’s Charms partner had usually been Harry, and… well, no matter how much he loved Harry, he had to admit the two of them together weren’t always the best at getting good grades. 

Most of the time the two of them had literally no idea of what they were doing, and that type of approach usually resulted in average marks that would have certainly been way worse without Hermione’s occasional, but nonetheless valuable help.

So when Hermione had told the rest of their group about their terrible grades in Charms, Pansy had self-proclaimed herself as his new Charms partner, forcing Draco to become Harry’s at the same time. She claimed she had done it simply because _“You should care more about your grades, and you’re both utterly crap at Charms”_ , but behind those acid words Ron could tell Pansy really cared about them and their grades, and that Draco did too, behind all the whining and huffing.

And he had been glad she’d stepped up, or at least he had been before their first Charms lesson together, earlier that year. 

Just one lesson with her had been enough to turn his brain to mush, as difficult and tedious as she made it feel. Pansy was a terribly meticulous person when it came to learning spells, even though she didn’t care much about having perfect grades. 

It was because she claimed Charms was the very basis of becoming a good wizard, and that it was a subject that had to be taken very seriously. And, rationally speaking, Ron knew she was right, but he still couldn’t stand how much his new friend could sound like Hermione, sometimes.

Oh, Hermione.

It wasn’t like Ron hated her, not at all. She was one of his dearest friends, and even though they had their arguments, he couldn’t possibly say he hated her.

But he still couldn’t stand how much of an insufferable know-it-all she could be, sometimes. It was almost like she couldn’t fathom the possibility of ever getting something wrong, like she couldn’t ever lose an argument. And it seemed like _she_ always got whatever _he_ wanted. His mom loved her, Harry always listened to her, even most of their new friends seemed to like her better. _One of them in particular…_

As that thought came into his head, he noticed Blaise and Hermione in the row in front of him. Their wands up, their smiles bright and wide, Hermione was laughing at something Blaise had said while reading through her Charms textbook, her finger running over the page like a feather.

The dark-skinned Slytherin stared at her, a charming toothy smile still on his lips, probably waiting for her to find whatever she was searching for in that new, wrinkle-free book, so different from the one Ron had in front of him.

Ron shuddered violently, and hastily turned his head back to Pansy. 

Before he had gotten lost in thought, he had faintly heard her start listing all the things he was doing wrong about the wand movement of the spell, but right in the moment he turned his head, he found her silently staring at him. 

She was looking at him with a knowing, kind of pained look in her dark, deep eyes, as if she knew what he had been thinking about just a few moments prior. As if she knew what he was feeling.

_Too bad she doesn’t._

The girl lowered her wand slowly, still silent, and simply kept staring at him, onyx black eyes into his light blue ones. 

Her eyes looked like a total wreck. Stormy, full of emotion, like she was trying her best to hold back a sea of pained, angry tears. For a moment, Ron felt his insides turn. Did Pansy like Blaise, too?! Could the universe be this much horrible to him?

In that moment, without even knowing what Pansy had to say yet, Ron decided he wouldn’t risk losing a friend like Pansy because of a crush. 

Sure, it was a fairly big, deep-rooted, definitely not “just-a-crush” crush, but he didn’t care. He wouldn’t lose Pansy like that. What did that muggle saying that was so popular among girls say? _Sisters before misters?_

He wasn’t a “sister”, but he was fairly sure that part wasn’t really essential anyway.

And then Pansy spoke up, unaware of his inner turmoil. 

“I’m not going to force you to talk about things you clearly don’t want to. Just… I saw how you look at…”. She paused as a shaky breath escaped her lips, and Ron felt his heart fall off his chest right then and there.

“I saw how you look at _her_. I’ll keep your secret. Just remember that… If you want, you can talk about it. To me”. 

“Wait what? _HER_?!” Ron stared at his friend dumbfounded, his eyes wide, red in the face like he had never been before. Did Pansy really think he liked.. _Hermione_?! 

Pansy looked at him with a terribly confused expression. She shook her head a little, her mouth slightly agape, and quietly cast a silencing charm around the two of them so that they could talk freely, without the risk of getting heard.

After making sure her spell was indeed working, Pansy spoke again. 

“You were looking in her direction like a love-sick pup, Ron. That’s okay if you.. like her”.

Ron was speechless. 

Really, he had no words. And he had no idea what to do, either. 

He didn’t really want to tell her about Blaise, mainly because.. he himself was having kind of an hard time figuring it out in the first place. Figuring himself out, too.

He had spent most of his August nights lying awake in his bed, questioning himself, trying to understand what was going on. 

Did liking Blaise made him gay? He wasn’t sure about that. He had liked girls, in the past, and it was his first time having feelings for another boy.  
Was it even real? Could he honestly say he could be able to _be_ with him, if he ever even had the chance?

He didn’t want to say he liked boys out loud in fear that, in the long run, it’d reveal itself to be a lie. What assured him it was not going to change? That his feelings were real, and not a simple phase? 

But on the other hand, making Pansy believe what she thought was happening was true meant lying to her, and he didn’t want to do that. Even though he didn’t really know what was going on inside his head, it wasn’t fair to her. Thinking about Pansy, though, made another question pop in his mind...

If Pansy had misunderstood the situation and thought he liked Hermione, then why was she so sad? 

Her heart-broken expression would have made sense, had she actually understood what was going on. It would have been clear that she was scared of losing one of her best friends that way, that she couldn’t stand the possibility of ruining their still very new friendship. 

But that hadn’t been the case, at all.

So, Ron took a moment to really look at her, hoping it would help him understand what the hell was going on. 

The girl sitting in front of him had her shoulders hunched over herself and her head slightly down, partially turned to the side, as to avoid his gaze. Her forearms rested over her pale thighs, which were mostly covered by the black skirt of her uniform, and her fingers were torturing the hem of her cardigan. 

They kept going even though the black sleeve was getting ruined irreparably, as if she were physically unable to stop them from stretching out the soft fabric.

He noticed her right leg was bouncing steadily under the desk, creating a furious movement that caused it to creak a bit.  
Pansy once told him that was something she did when she was nervous or when she felt the need to move but couldn’t, like when she was sitting in class or at one of her mother’s family dinners. Most of the time she didn’t even notice she was doing it, until someone told her to stop.

It didn’t make sense. Why was she so anxious, and sad? It was almost like she-

_Oh._

_Oh. I think I know what’s happening. Oh Godric._

Pansy was asking him about the girl she thought was his crush, and was on the verge of crying. She was sad, and looked heart broken, but was still trying to make it look like she wasn’t touched at all. And then, everything made sense. 

How Pansy lighted up every time she saw Hermione arrive, the way she looked at her, how wide her smile would get every time she saw the black skinned girl walking towards her.

“You like Hermione” said Ron, sending a measured look at Pansy, careful not to make his voice sound like he was attacking her.

It was like he had just caused a storm. Pansy hastily turned her head to look at him in the eyes, and for a moment, Ron thought she was going to hex him for suggesting something like that. Instead of the hateful look he was sure she was going to send him, Ron found himself looking right into Pansy’s tearful pleading eyes. 

“Please don’t tell anyone”, had been her only words, as she lowered her head once again, to hide the pitiful expression on her face.

Ron felt his heart break a little at the sight. “No, Pansy I’m not-- I wasn’t going to tell anyone”, said he, but Pansy still refused to look at him. She simply nodded, her raven hair bouncing slightly at the motion, and put her wand up again, clearly ready to leave their conversation behind to concentrate on the lesson.

Ron didn’t let her, though, and summoning every ounce of Gryffindor courage he could find inside his heart, started speaking again. 

“Wait, Pansy, I have to tell you something too. And it’s not what you think it is.

“I… I think I have a crush on Blaise”.

The look on Pansy’s face after she had heard his words would have made him laugh, if only the situation had been different. Waiting for a reaction after having come out to a friend for the first time wasn’t a situation that inspired lots of laughs anyway.

Ron saw Pansy blink at him a couple times with her long, mascara-coated lashes. She shook her head a little as her lips broke into a wide smile.

“Oh my Godric Ron, that’s awesome!” said her excitedly, pulling him into a bone-crushing hug, seemingly not caring about the fact that they were in class and everybody could still see them. 

Ron laughed at her reaction, secretly relieved everything had gone well, and hugged her back a little tighter. They stayed like that for a couple moments before reluctantly pulling away, aware of their surroundings.

The students around them though didn’t stop Pansy from giggling like a little child. She turned towards her desk, wand once again in hand, and whispered: “We have to talk, and you have to tell me everything about your crush!”.

“As you do, too!” replied the boy, still chuckling at her, as he reached for his wand too.

As they started practising the rather simple spell, time literally flew by, and before they knew it the lesson had ended. 

At the bell’s first ring, all the students lowered their wands and got up from their seats to get to their following lessons.

Ron, Pansy and the rest of their group were putting their books and wands back into their bags to head to Transfiguration. They were laughing loudly as Frank told them about a thing that had happened at Camp Jupiter two months prior, when something unusual caught Ron’s eye. 

Theodore Nott was walking up to them, clearly nervous but at the same time clearly trying not to show it, holding a couple of books to his chest like they were the only thing keeping him together. 

Even though the expression on his face conveyed just how much of a nervous wreck he was, his walking was confident and elegant. He looked like a student walking towards an exam committee: terrified, yes, but also confident and prepared.

“Hi, Draco” said Nott with a firm but gentle tone, stopping right in front of the blonde Slytherin. 

Draco, who up until that moment had been too busy talking to Harry, hadn’t even noticed the boy walking up to them. He slightly winced at the unexpected new voice and hastily turned around to face the boy.

The annoyance in his face was clear, and if something like this had happened last year, Ron was certain the blonde would have already jumped at Nott’s throat for having frightened him.

But he knew _this_ Draco wouldn’t dream of doing anything of the sort, and in fact, Ron saw him mask his irritation up last minute, pulling up a little fake smile and greeting Nott back politely.

Sometimes it scared him how well Draco was able to mask his emotions.

Nott though didn’t seem to notice, or maybe he didn’t care, and started speaking again.

“I’ve been having a lot of problems with Potions lately, so I wanted to ask you whether you’d do me a favor and help me with my Potions homework. I’d really appreciate it” said he in his usual confident manner to a rather vexed _(but too polite to ever admit it)_ Draco Malfoy.

At his words, Draco arched one of his blonde eyebrows. “You’re one of the best in our year at Potions” said he, as he attentively eyed the skinny boy in front of him. 

Nott seemed taken by surprise at Draco’s exclamation, and his cheeks became unbelievably red, like the tomatoes of his mom’s garden. The sight was quite hilarious, to be honest, but Ron still tried his best not to burst out laughing in front of all his friends.

“Yes, well, I am, but I’m having some problems with that new potion we’re studying and I could definitely use some help. So I came looking for you, since you’re the best at Potions” promptly replied the boy, winking at Draco, a cocky smile on his lips as he tried his best to ignore the burning heat of his cheeks.

It was clear as daylight that Nott was desperately trying to flirt with Draco, and Ron didn’t really know how to feel about it. 

He couldn’t say he didn’t see something like this coming since, he had to admit it, Draco was a fairly good-looking bloke. 

Pansy, before the start of the year, had been sure it would have been only a matter of time before the rest of the school would notice how handsome Draco was. At the time he had agreed with her, sure someone was certainly going to get a crush on him sometime during the school year. 

But when he’d said that, he surely didn’t think it would have happened that fast.

 _Godric knows for how much Nott has had this thing going on_ , thought Ron, and casting a side glance at Pansy, it was clear from the look in her dark eyes that she was thinking just the same.

As two of them were having that silent conversation, Draco and Theodore Nott were still standing over the desks of the Charms classroom along with their other friends. 

Draco simply shrugged at Nott’s answer, and looked at him.

“Okay. I was going to look for you anyway, since I wanted to compare Herbology notes from last week’s lesson” said the blonde Slytherin then.

Having noticed the lovesick look on Nott’s face at his words, Draco hastily shoved his things inside his bag as fast as he could and mumbling something about being horribly late for class, he pulled Harry by the sleeve of his robe and made his way out of the door.

The rest of them was left behind in the classroom, wide-eyed as they stared at Theodore Nott, still standing in front of the desk and smirking slightly at the door.

⸙⸙

Lunch at the Gryffindor table that day would have looked normal, to an outsider.

There were students cheerily conversing with their friends, plenty of food to be shared among them, the usual pranksters (a.k.a. Fred and George Weasley) who were having lots of fun charming the forks of random students.  
The usual, really.

But Jason still felt like something was off. 

He was usually rather good at understanding when something was wrong (thanks to his demigod necessary-to-survive instincts), and this was one of those occasions when he knew something was different, but he couldn’t figure out what.

He sat at the middle of the table with Frank and Hermione next to him. They were talking about something that had happened during Herbology, a subject he had decided not to take, since he had found plants weren’t really his forte. 

Leaving them to their conversation, Jason’s gaze focused on Ron, who was sitting in front of him on the other side of the table. He was nodding at something Seamus was saying, as he filled his plate again with a second serving of mashed potatoes. He looked definitely brighter than he did most days, like a big weight had been took off his chest. And though it was unusual, it was certainly not unwelcome.

He smiled slightly at the sight of Ron’s smiling face and turned to look at Harry, the last one of his friends sitting at the Gryffindor table.

The boy was absentmindedly picking at the food on his plate with a fork, something he usually never did and was quite strange on its own. He had his other hand tangled in his hair, propping up his head, and he was staring heatedly at something behind Jason’s back, something that the demigod wasn’t able to see from where he sat.

Jason turned around a bit, following Harry’s gaze, decided to understand what was going on, and that’s how he found himself staring at a certain blonde-haired boy at the Slytherin table who, unaware of the pairs of eyes on him, was focused on whatever Blaise was telling him. 

Discreetly turning around once again, Jason couldn’t help but look at Harry one more time, wondering what had happened between the two.

Harry and Draco had always seemed pretty close to him, at least from what he had seen since the beginning of the school year. They talked everyday, yet still seemed to find new things to talk about. They sat together in most classes, yet looked eager every time they saw each other. They argued, and they laughed, and they teased each other like they had been friends since forever.

Even though Hermione had told him that before the end of the Wizarding War they couldn’t stand each other, Jason had a hard time picturing the two of them as enemies, after seeing how caring and friendly they were with one another every day.

Maybe some of their old rivaliers had come back to surface? It was unlikely, but could still have happened. After all, Jason didn’t really know them that well, just as they didn’t know him well too.

Still, he couldn’t believe Harry could have something against Draco. 

He turned his gaze to the Slytherin table once again, and not so far away from where Draco was sitting he found the skinny guy from that morning at Charms, Theodore Nott, staring at Draco’s smiling face with as much intensity as Harry usually did, his eyes lighted by the same soft gleam he’d had when he had talked to him that morning.

Before Jason could come to any kind of conclusion, a rather loud noise coming from the opposite side of his table made him turn around promptly, his hand flying instinctively to the pocket of his robe to reach for his sword, ready to fight. 

As his gaze settled on the table though, he quickly stopped himself before he could draw out his sword and alarm the entire school. 

Sometimes it was hard, when he heard a loud noise or someone coming behind him, to remind himself that he wasn’t on the battlefield anymore. That he wasn’t in war. That there weren’t any monsters coming for him or his friends. He was working on it, even though, deep down, he knew those type of instincts wouldn’t go away with time. That they would always be a part of him for as long as he lived.

Harry had pushed his plate away violently, looking positively murderous, and without saying another word had gotten up and left the table furiously, not even caring to make it look like he wasn’t angry. 

Luckily, before any of the Gryffindor students could even make a sound, the bell rang, announcing the end of lunch. Soon, the students got up from their tables and made their way out of the Great Hall, not giving much thought about what had happened moments prior.

Hermione and Ron though were looking at each other preoccupied, wondering what could have caused such a reaction from their normally quiet friend. 

“What the hell happened now?” asked Ron worried, stretching his neck out to follow Harry’s figure out of the Great Hall, swiftly passing the other students, bumping into some and walking away without even apologise.

Jason stayed silent, and turned his head to the now half-empty Slytherin table.

_I might just know._

⸙⸙⸙

Blaise was lying lazily over the soft sheets of his four-poster bed, staring absentmindedly at the ceiling of his dimly lit bedroom in the Slytherin dorms.

The soft golden light coming from the finely decorated table lamp on his bedside table made the usually dark and cold room appear way warmer than how it actually was, painting the ceiling of a soft orangey shade. 

With his right arm sprawled over his pillow and his head slightly tilted towards the mogan door, Blaise closed his eyes and just breathed in the calm, peaceful atmosphere of the deserted room.

It was relaxing, being alone for a change. Taking a little break from his friends. He loved them, more than he could possibly say, but sometimes the thoughts on his head and his friends together became a little bit too much for him to handle.

He enjoyed calmness, and tranquillity. He loved being alone, as strange as it sounded.

But being alone also meant thinking. 

Meant focusing on the thoughts that swam inside his head every day without having the possibility to drown them, at least temporarily, like he did when he spent time with his friends.

His mom, their fights, her new husband that was inevitably going to die in a year time, school.

And that year, on top of that, there was a new thought inside his head. 

A much nicer, sweeter thought than his usual ones, but still one that should have never found its way into his head. 

A thought that was now, quite predictively, the only thing his useless brain was able to focus on. 

_Soft ginger hair and little freckles scattered over pale skin._

_Toothy smiles directed at him. Blushing cheeks._

_Sky blue eyes that never stared back at his._

_Sky blue eyes that wanted nothing to do with him._

Feeling breathless, Blaise let out a small, tired sight, and turned around on his bed.

He shut his eyes tighter and started listing, in his mind, all the things he was able to perceive. It was a trick his mother had taught him what felt like a lifetime ago, for when he was feeling overwhelmed. It was supposed to calm him down.

It didn’t usually work that well, but he figured that giving it a try wouldn’t hurt.

He let his palms slowly slip over the green silk sheets of his bed, and concentrated on how soft and fresh and safe they felt, breathing deeply in the subtle smell of lavender and cleanliness.

He could hear the quiet sound of running water coming from their shared bathroom, where Draco was taking his nightly shower like he did every night before bed.

He could also hear a faint sound of music coming through the hard mogan door of the bathroom, and Draco’s voice practically yelling the lyrics of what seemed like a pop song about having fun at a party. 

Blaise couldn’t help but cackle at the image of Draco singing loudly in the shower, and suddenly felt better. He concentrated on the song, wanting to understand which one it was, when suddenly Draco started screaming so loudly there was no need to concentrate anymore.

_“IT’S TIME FOR BIG FUN, BIG FUN!!”_

And then, Blaise felt his face pale.

“Oh Salazar, not this shit again...”, whispered exasperated the wizard, passing an hand over his face.

Well, he should have seen that coming. It was _Draco_ , after all. 

And it was very Draco to listen to musicals in the shower.

Since Millicent Bulstrode had introduced Slytherin House to muggle entertainment last year, many innocent wizards and witches had been lost to the plague that was musical theater.

That start of term, Bulstrode had just come back from a two month-long stay in New York where she had been visiting some of her Muggle relatives. Apparently while in there she had made quite a few trips to Broadway, because over the course of her vacation, she had apparently fell madly in love with musical theater.

And that was seemingly all she had to say about New York. 

She hadn’t told them a single thing about the blinding lights, or the skyscrapers, or the disgustingly fat street food, literally nothing.

Only. Musical. Theatre.

But the worst thing was, it hadn’t passed. Oh hell, no. She was still in love with musicals, more than ever, actually.

Thanks to Salazar, though, other than spreading knowledge about the american revolution and expressing her love for depressed boys with long hair and painted nails, Millicent had at the same time also done the best thing someone could have ever done for Slytherin house.

Introducing Slytherins to muggle music.

After having discovered it, Blaise often found himself wondering how he had been able to survive all those years without Lana del Rey and Lorde in his life.

She had come back that same summer with a suitcase full of vinyls and had literally forced all the fourth years to listen as she played them on the old gramophone in their common room.

All of them, some sitting on the floor, some on the couches or the loveseats, at the time hadn’t really thought they were going to like muggle music. They perceived it as something too far away from them and their wizarding lives, something they wouldn’t be able to understand.

And if there’s something Slytherins as a whole hate, even more than Ravenclaws, is feeling like they’re not smart.

So they had all looked rather skeptical as Millicent had excitedly extracted a completely black vinyl from its cover and had put it on the plate of the old gramophone.

“Trust me, you’re going to love this”, had said her knowingly, smirking wickedly in their direction, before lowering the stylus.

And oh, had she been right.

Millicent, knowing full well her fellow Slytherins, had chosen to start with an album that probably contained the most Slytherin songs to ever be created.

_“Don’t you think that it’s boring how people talk?”_

After listening to the first song, Blaise remembered feeling pleasantly surprised by how much he connected to the girl singing. He also remembered looking at his friends and housemates from the couch he was lying on with Draco and Pansy, and seeing the same expression of welcome disbelief on the faces of literally every one of them.

And as the songs went on, he noticed the lyrics legitimately looked like they were taken from scraps of conversations overheard in the Slytherin common room, which surprised him a lot. 

Hadn’t he known better, had thought Blaise then, he’d definitely think it had been a Slytherin to write them.

The memory of that autumn afternoon had made Blaise so happy and nostalgic that he momentarily forgot about what was currently happening in the bathroom of his dorm room.

As he heard Draco shout from over the door again, still singing that same song from _Heathers_ , Blaise snapped out of his memory and closed his eyes once again, praying Nico would come back from his meeting with his boyfriend soon. He wasn’t sure he could endure this all alone without going crazy.

He didn’t even hate musicals, okay? Actually, he kind of liked some of the songs Millicent had made him listen to. He just wasn’t as obsessed with them yet as his two best friends were. 

And Draco’s voice under the shower… Well. 

Even though the boy was normally pretty good at singing, his one-man shows under the shower sounded more like roosters fighting than actual sing-a-longs.

_“I FEEL LIKE BONO AT LIVE AID!!”_

Yeah, precisely.

“Shut up, Heather!” shouted then Blaise from his bed, fed up but still giggling from the image of his best friend shouting in the shower sounding like a wounded animal, hoping Draco was going to stop torturing him like that.

It was a matter of seconds before Draco’s shouted “Fuck you, Heather!” could be heard from across the heavy door of the bathroom, slightly muffled out by the steady flow of the water, as well as Blaise’s loud, carefree laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello readers, I hope you liked this chapter!  
> Sadly I probably won't be able to upload next tuesday, online school is still school and I really have to study.
> 
> Wish me luck...


	6. Glory And (Not That Much) Gore

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Desclaimer: this chapter contains small mentions of blood and wounds. If you'd rather skip that part, skip the part between ***.
> 
> I hope you'll like this chapter!

Chapter Six

Glory And (Not That Much) Gore

⸙

“Very good, students! One more time and then you are all free to go”.

With one of her rare proud smiles on, Minerva McGonagall stood high behind her mahogany desk as she looked over the little desks of the Transfiguration classroom, occupied by the third year Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw students. 

As she silently glanced over their desks to make sure they were all following her instructions right, she felt her carefully-built, signature strict façade crumble at the sight of the adorably focused look on the tiny, child-like faces of her students. They looked eager to learn, eager to impress her, and she felt her gaze soften at the thought.

Even though Minerva had never been able to tell which part of teaching was her absolute favourite, she knew that moments like those were the very reason she still loved teaching with all her heart, even after years and years of doing so. 

It was the way her students challenged themselves each day, their passion for the subject she taught, and the proud looks on their faces when they succeeded in casting a spell right, that made her love her position as an Hogwarts professor. 

Sure, things weren’t always as peaceful as she’d like them to be, but on the other hand it wasn’t like she had any control over it. Being an Hogwarts professor and an Head of House at the same time also meant that everyday she had to deal with angsty, hormonal teenagers with absolutely no sense of decorum. 

But even though finding her students snogging in alcoves and cupboards was incredibly embarrassing, she still loved her job as much as she did when she had started. 

Overall enjoying her job though didn’t mean she found the same pleasure in teaching all of her classes.

Right in that moment in fact, as she observed the little faces of the Hufflepuffs and the Ravenclaws, Minerva was painfully aware she was enjoying the last few peaceful moments of her working day. Just the mere mental image of what her schedule looked like on thursdays made her want to scream from the top of the Astronomy Tower. 

_After first period ends, I have class with the Gryffindors_ , she recalled.

_And then, classes with the Gryffindors for the rest of the day._

A defeated sigh escaped the professor’s lips before she could do anything to stop it, and just hearing how tired it sounded made Minerva’s eyes instinctively close, a bit out of shame, a bit out of utter desperation. 

Right in that moment, she had felt a strange thought blossoming in her mind, an urge she had always felt strong within her but had never actually given up to: the desire to do something incredibly immature for once and just ditch the rest of her classes, return to her bed and escape the pain in the ass that was class with the Gryffindors _and_ the Slytherins.

Unexpectedly enough in fact, Minerva McGonagall absolutely dreaded teaching the Gryffindors. Especially if, during her lessons, the Gryffindors were paired up with the Slytherins.

And the thing that caused Minerva to lose her mind nearly every day was… 

Most of them, were.

Even though she understandably couldn’t say such a thing to another living soul, every time she found herself about to start a lesson in a room full of Gryffindors and Slytherins she felt her mental stability slowly but steadily abandoning her in prospect of what was inevitably going to happen.

She felt herself lose her mind a bit more every time she had to interrupt her lecture to scold misbehaving students, subjects who she knew couldn’t care less about her warnings and just kept disturbing her lesson anyway as soon as she finished talking to them. 

Treading insults loudly from desk to desk, pulling pranks on one other, sending flying sheets of paper with nasty insults written on them, all those things were pretty much inevitable in a class full of Gryffindors and Slytherins, and Minerva, who was very much a fan of order and respect, sometimes found herself just wanting to fly the room and leave that mess behind her.

But she couldn’t. _She_ was the adult, afterall. 

So with the ring of the enchanted bell loud in her ears, she bid farewell to her sweet, amazingly well-behaved Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, and mentally prepared herself to face the rest of her day.

Suddenly though, a thought flashed in her mind and she hurriedly stopped the students from leaving the room, mentally cursing herself for letting such a thing escape her mind until the very last second of class. 

The students who were already walking out of the door made their way back into the classroom, sending questioning looks at the classmates who had called them back in.

“I almost forgot to tell you, darlings. As I’m sure you remember, three years ago a Duelling Club had been instituted here at school”.

At the mention of the Duelling Club, she noticed her students getting more and more interested at what she had to say, so she kept going.

“It was later dismantled, but this year the school has decided to reintroduce it again as an afternoon activity. If you find yourself interested in joining, please inform one of the two professors who are taking care of the project, professor Snape and professor Lupin”.

As she expected, her students light up like the Great Hall during Yuletide. She watched as the little boys and girls of her class loudly discussed the news, excited at the prospect of taking part in the project, big smiles on their faces and shining eyes.

She found herself smiling fondly at the sight, and before any of her students could notice she made sure to send them off to their next classes, her fake stern expression on, the dread she had felt just mere moments prior completely forgotten.

⸙⸙

“Have you heard about the Duelling Club?!”, asked Hazel excitedly as she held a steaming cup of tea in her hands, careful not to burn her fingers.

The group of demigods and wizards had decided to meet up in the Hufflepuff common room to have tea together, as they now did almost every thursday. It had started a day of the second week of school, when Jason had light-heartedly thrown a comment about having never had tea that wasn’t iced and from Starbucks.

Apparently, that was a big no-no for British people. Or maybe it was simply for wizards? Hades, maybe it was just a thing British wizards (or _those_ British wizards) really cared about. Frank didn’t like to generalize, so he hadn’t dwelt much on that point.

Sure enough though, letting Gaea take over the world would have probably been less disastrous than saying those words in that particular context. Even Hermione, who usually was the calmest and most open-minded person of their group, had stared at Jason with such a bewildered look on her face one could have thought he had just killed her mother in front of her.

Draco and Ron, though, had been the worst. Between Draco’s _“What do you mean you never had proper tea?! Are you insane?!”_ , and Ron’s utterly disgusted look, Frank had seen Jason getting paler and paler. 

In the end Blaise had taken pity of Jason and had proposed getting tea together. His suggestion, along with Hannah Abbott’s permit to utilise the Hufflepuff common room and the help from Harry’s friends in the kitchens, had started their new weekly appointment.

Frank had found he really liked both their meetings and the tea, even though he certainly enjoyed spending time with his friends better.

As for his friends, they were all seating in front of the fireplace, some on the soft sofas, others on the sand coloured poufs, all enveloped in the calm and cozy atmosphere of the Hufflepuff common room. 

Blaise looked at Hazel from his place over one of the poufs, an almost finished cup of mint tea resting at his feet. “Yes, McGonagall told us Slytherins and Gryffindors in class this morning. I’m not going though”.

Frank saw Leo crunching in face in confusion at the Slytherin’s words. “Come on man, they give you a chance to fight with someone without getting in trouble and you throw it away?” said the demigod, almost spilling his cup of tea all over the floor. “This Club thing is a dream come true”.

“Yeah, tell that to Harry and Draco...”, said Hermione, silently glancing at the two boys with a slightly disappointed look. Frank saw the two of them blushing slightly, and deducted her words had something to do with the time when they still considered themselves each other’s “enemy”.

As curious as he was about the question though, he had no time to ask what she meant, because Piper beat him to it. 

The daughter of Aphrodite, in fact, leaned toward from her place on one of the little sofas and propped her head up on her hands as she asked Hermione what she meant with that.

Harry looked definitely uncomfortable after Piper had asked her question, but still opened his mouth to answer her, a clearly resigned look on his face.

“As you know, Draco and I weren’t always this friendly with each other. During the first meeting of the Duelling Club back in our second year we got paired up and… we got a little carried away”, explained him sheepishly as he passed one of his hands through his messy dark hair.

“What do you meant with ‘a little carried away’?” enquired Nico, sounding a bit skeptical, attentively following what was happening from his place in Will’s arms, the both of them sprawled over the yellow couch.

“I conjured a snake to attack him, things didn’t go the way I planned, and that’s the story of how we discovered Harry could speak Parseltongue, the language of the snakes”, said Draco, seemingly unfazed but still very much red in the face and neck, casually resting his head on the armrest of the sofa.

_Oh. Oh well. Not the strangest ability I’ve ever seen, but I guess having abilities in the first place it’s not that common amongst mortals._

It looked like the rest of his friends were thinking the exact same thing, at least from the moderately mesmerized looks on their faces.

“Wait”, said suddenly Leo, and Frank felt his blood run cold. 

Leo was smirking. But it wasn’t just _a_ smirk.

It was _the_ smirk.

That annoying, devilish, unbelievingly infuriating smirk Leo had on every time he had one of awful ideas. The same one he had every time he made fun of Frank.

And something, call it sixth sense or gut or whatever, was telling Frank that time, it was both.

_Obviously it’s both, oh my Gods._

Leo turned his head to him, devilish grin on, and finally said: “Then you can talk to Frank if he transforms in a snake!”.

_I should have seen it coming._

“Ahah Leo, very funny. You know it’s not going to happen”. Crossing his arms on his chest, he put on his best “I’m-a-praetor-fear-me” face in the hopes that, just for once, Leo would get a clue and leave it. He didn’t.

“Oh come on man, it would be awesome!” insisted Leo, gesticulating widely. “Just imagine the possibilities!”.

“I’d rather not”.

That caused the rest of their friends to burst out laughing loudly, and Frank was relieved there wasn’t anyone else in the room at the moment, or he would have felt terribly mortified. 

As Leo kept rambling about the alleged ‘possibilities’ their two abilities combined could have though, Frank felt his stern look melt away, getting replaced by a wide, sincere smile. 

He laughed along with his friends, tea long forgotten and gone cold, and once again found himself thank the Gods he had listened to Hazel and accepted Hecate’s offer.

⸙⸙⸙

It was now the last week of September, and the day of the first encounter of the Duelling Club had finally came, much to the group’s delight.

As he had said the thursday before during one of their tea times, Blaise had decided not to go, and in the end Hermione had followed him. 

She had said she would much prefer occupying her time studying for their O.W.L.s, and nobody had dared tell her it was clearly too soon to begin to even worry about them in the first place, knowing full well that saying something like that was just going to get them exed. 

The two being the only ones out of their friend group who didn’t participate, had still kept them company during the walk to the Duelling room. Midway through the path, though, they had stopped and changed direction, heading to the library. 

“Have fun and don’t hurt each other, we wouldn’t want our Sunny Boy here to get overworked” said Blaise teasingly, sending Will a quick playful wink.

Will at first simply stared back at him, feigning being unimpressed. Then he made a show of rolling his eyes, laughed softly at the sight of the Slytherin already running down the corridor, Hermione giggling by his side. 

The boy had understood a long time ago that after friendly flirting with Will, it was in his best interest to disappear as quickly as possible. If there was something someone would want to escape in fact, it was Nico’s jealous wrath.

At first Will hadn't thought Nico would turned out to be the jealous type, but after having dealt with some small jealous outbursts during their first weeks at Hogwarts, he had found that the discovery of this new trait of Nico’s character didn’t annoy him as much as he thought it would. 

On the contrary, it always felt… kinda nice. He always felt warm in his chest whenever Nico would made it clear that it was _him_ who was his boyfriend, either using words or with subtle gestures which always managed to melt him.

Nico didn’t get overly possessive, or violent. And Will found he almost _liked_ the annoyed look on his boyfriend’s face after Blaise or anyone would try to flirt with him.

Not that he would ever tell Nico so, anyways.

The rest of them continued walking to the room. Among the giggly smiles and excited looks of his friends, Will also noticed Nico walking next to Jason, his expression not as elated as the ones on the others’ faces. 

His gorgeous dark eyes faced down, staring into nothing, and he could see a bit of red on the back of his neck, creeping from the collar of his white shirt. 

Will wanted to come over to him and wrap him in his arms, to reassure him he still had eyes only for him. But he hadn’t had the chance to even take a step in his direction, because without even realizing it he had found himself in front of the tall mogan door of the Great Hall.

The room, still lighted by countless floating candles as usual, was mostly empty. The four long dining tables they used every day were nowhere to be seen, and in their place had been conjured a long golden stage. Dozens of students from all the Houses were gathered around it, chatting happily and waiting for the lesson to start, the noise of their laughter filling up the room.

Will saw professor Snape and professor Lupin standing on the platform, silently watching their students. As they made their way into the room, Will saw Snape’s face crunch in a repulsed grimace, and felt a wave of irritation come washing over him. 

When he was little, his mother always liked to say he was the most patient and well-mannered boy in the world. She said that as a baby he had never thrown any tantrums, never complained about anything, and that was what made him special. Even though Will firmly believed that the things she said couldn’t be true (babies are still babies, afterall), he did consider himself a fairly patient person. It was objectively hard to make him lose his mind. 

But Gods, seeing Severus Snape’s grimace was certainly the fastest way to make sure he got riled up for good.

Professor Lupin smiled warmly at them, and gestured for them to come closer and join the other students. After another ten minutes of waiting, professor Lupin cleared his throat loudly to make sure everyone paid attention to him.

After he obtained the focus of all of his students, he smiled at them once again and started speaking. “Good afternoon, students, and welcome to the first encounter of our weekly Duelling Club!”.

The students clapped loudly at the professor’s words, excited beyond belief about the lesson, and Will didn’t know how to feel about their excitement. What did they find so amazing in duelling? Sure, duelling with friends was fun, but all those students didn’t know what it was like to really fight for their lives, or the lives of their loved ones. That wasn’t funny, at all, and Will knew that very well.

What was it that made a simulated situation of danger so exciting? After facing the possibility of death that many times (not to mention what the rest of his friends and boyfriend had gone through), to him duelling had lost most of the already little appealing it once had. 

He was sure his friends felt the same way as he did, to some extent. The difference was they had decided to keep duelling to train, to make sure they weren’t left unprepared in case of an attack. Maybe it was even therapeutic, to them, knowing they could always be able to defend themselves. On the contrary, he had found out he liked watching his friends duel much more than actually doing the duelling himself, and that was fine with him. He had agreed to join the club simply because it was something new, and it was something that surely was going to come in hand, sooner or later.

These people though had no real reason to learn how to duel, but they still wanted to. Was it something to blame? Absolutely not. Did it seem weird to him, seeing how excited they were about it? Very.

Lupin started briefly explaining what spells they were going to learn during the course of the year, and then let Snape list the rules they had to follow to keep the duels safe and cause no unnecessary harm to anyone.

“Now, our first encounter will be a bit different from the ones we are going to have in the future. There’ll be no magic involved”, said Lupin, smile a bit apologetic.

Will thought that was understandable. It wasn’t like they could let children duel without even explaining them how it was done. It seemed very a responsible move, but that didn’t stop the groins of disappointment coming from the other students’ mouths.

Snape barely gave it any mind. “We certainly wouldn’t want something along the lines of our delightful first encounter three years ago happen again,” said the professor instead, sending a snide glace at Harry and Draco. 

The two of them looked just as embarrassed as they had been the first time that encounter had come up, that day in the Hufflepuff common room, and Will couldn’t help but feeling a little bit of sympathy for them. 

“So, Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Potter, it’s best if you stay on the sidelines this time”, said Lupin, chuckling slightly at his godson’s red face, who kept getting redder and redder every second. 

“Anyway”, continued the professor, focusing this time on the group of demigods in the room with a warm smile.

“Since we have the amazing opportunity this year to have in our school students who have a different conception of duelling,” said he, “Professor Snape and I thought that it would be interesting, non to mention highly instructive, if for this first encounter two of our demigod students could show us a duel ‘the demigod style’ ”.

Will immediately felt his friends light up at the professor’s words. He subtly glanced at them, a small pleased smile on his lips, happy beyond words that his friends finally had an opportunity to duel.

Since the beginning of the school year, in fact, none of them had been able to use the amazing training room the school had provided them with, and saying that the impossibility to train had made them… eager, was a bit of an understatement.

Will knew perfectly well that his friends used duelling as a outlet, to unwind, and going that much time without their stress reliever must have been torture for them. Healing for him had the same power: it was his element, the thing he was always best at. When he felt anxious or hyperactive, even the simple action of cutting bandages had the power to calm him and release the tension. It had been hard for him too, at first, having no one to cure and fuss about the way he usually did at the infirmary. But since he had started helping the school healer, Madame Pomfrey, curing the occasional broken bones or concussions from Quidditch, everything had somehow settled. Sure, she didn’t let him do much, but that little he did still helped him immensely.

He was insanely happy their professors had suggested something like this, relieved that his friends had found their opportunity, too.

“Obviously, you don’t have to-”. 

“No, that’s okay. We want to”. As he expected, Nico was the first one to speak. Will knew his boyfriend in particular had been extremely annoyed by the lack of freetime and consequent impossibility to train, so he had expected him to be the first one to volunteer.

His eyes sparkled with anticipation and excitement, as if he had just taken the first breath after an endless time spent underwater, and Will felt his smile grow wider at the sight. 

Professor Lupin must have noticed his excited expression too, as he simply stopped talking and gave him another one of his smiles. When he asked who else wanted to duel, Jason stepped up swiftly, sending an apologetic glance to the rest of their friends. 

“If that’s alright with you, I’d like to” said he, and nobody stopped him. On the contrary, Hazel and Frank, along with Leo, Calypso and Piper passionately urged him to go, big smiles on their faces.

“Don’t think next time it won’t be me and Leo who fight” said Hazel playfully, her arms crossed on her chest, and Jason sent her an apologetic smile before joining Nico on the stage, ready to fight.

⸙⸙⸙⸙

The second Moony had asked the demigods to show the wizards the way they duelled, Harry had instinctively turned to Draco.

Just two days prior, during one of their seemingly endless conversations, Draco had told him that he would have loved to see their new friends in their element at least once during their stay at Hogwarts. Since they had started telling them about their days at Camp Half-Blood, especially about the sparring matches they liked to have at least once a day, it had been clear to the wizards that for most of their friends, sparring was a second nature. With the exception of Leo, Calypso, Piper and Will, the rest of their friends absolutely adored fighting. That day, Harry had agreed with Draco that seeing them fight would have certainly been interesting. It wasn’t like he had expected to see that actually happen, though.

Jason, already on the stage along with Nico, Moony and Snape, was eyeing the stage under him skeptically. He then turned to Snape, and said: “Sir, I don’t think we’re going to be able to duel here. It’s too narrow, we won’t have the space to move freely”.

Nico nodded pensievely. “Something circular would be definitely better”, said the demigod.

Snape looked at them with his usual irritated scowl on, but didn’t protest. After what had happened with Will the first day, Harry had noticed Snape restrained from being too harsh on the demigods. That meant he didn’t usually pester them too much, and most of the times, he even refrained himself from talking back to them. Could it be that maybe Snape, for once in his life as a professor, had understood just how far he had gone? That he was, in his own contorted way, sorry?

“You down there, move” said the professor, gesturing to the students huddled around the stage. After they had all stepped away, Snape transfigured the stage into a circular arena, not too big but definitely larger than the previous space.  
The two demigods smiled, satisfied with the shape of the arena, and finally positioned on the opposite sides of it.

Harry saw the wizards and witches in the room staring at Nico and Jason with bated breath, anticipation in the hair as the two prepared to duel. 

Beside him, Harry felt Draco watch the scene unfolding with curious excitement, his arms crossed to his chest, eyes attentively set on the two demigods.

Nico raised his hand to his side and a split darker than anything Harry had ever seen suddenly appeared. The Hogwarts students startled harshly, certainly not expecting anything of the sort, but otherwise said nothing, probably intimidated by the aura of power the two demigods emanated. 

Nico opened his palm and a completely black sword came flying from the split right into his hand, leaving the students shocked and amazed. The demigod raised his sword for the students to see, and then gently lowered it to his side. 

Jason responded by pulling a little golden coin from his pocket, smirking and staring right into Nico’s eyes. He flipped the coin, and Harry saw the little piece of metal become a long, elegant golden sword, which sat perfectly into Jason’s hand. 

The two swords seemed to be perfect opposites. Nico’s was dark, as if it had been forged from a shadow, and looked unbearingly cold to the touch. It was clearly made to inspire utter terror in its opposants, and just looking at it too much made Harry want to look away from it. 

Jason’s, on the other hand, seemed to shine with its own light: the rays of the almost dying sun coming from the large windows of the room reflected on its golden surface, making it look like it was made of pure light. Despite its awe inspiring look though, it didn’t look any less intimidating than Nico’s. The sword radiated power and light, and there was something about it that Harry couldn’t really pinpoint, but that had him shaking with fear.

The striking differences of both the swords and the sword fighters were going to make the match even more exciting to witness, Harry could bet on it.

Nico and Jason finally positioned, their swords grawn in front of them. 

There was a moment of silence, full of anticipation and impatience. Then Moony kicked off, and the two demigods ran towards each other.

Nico raised his sword in the air and lowered it onto Jason’s golden one in an attempt to disarm him, but Jason kept his grasp firm and swiftly dodged his shot.

The blond backed off, sword high to protect himself. He then took two steps in quick succession, approaching Nico, and swung the sword down towards the demigod’s left knee. 

Nico though was ready, and easily blocked him by dropping his arm and pushing his sword away from him with his own dark one.

The two kept attacking each other relentlessly, without taking a single break, aiming at the other with powerful blows that Harry knew would seriously hurt had one of them managed not to stop them.

The rest of the demigods were energetically cheering for their two friends from the sidelines, whilst the Hogwarts students were staring wide-eyed at the two demigods basically trying to hurt each other, without saying as much as a word.

Harry could hear Leo, Calypso and Will whistling loudly as Piper yelled pieces of advice, while Hazel and Frank reacted at whatever little move the two made with exasperated and excited grunts. 

They reminded him a little of the verses Ron would make while watching a Chudley Cannons’ match, and the comparison nearly made him burst out laughing.

***With all those powerful and carefully planned attacks, it wasn’t long before one of them got injured. 

Watching as Jason’s golden blade cut through the skin of Nico’s bicep, drawing a line of thick red blood, Harry felt his mind go a bit numb. 

It wasn’t bad, or at least Harry didn’t think so, because if it really were bad, Harry was sure Will would have certainly stopped the duel by now.

It was still something Harry didn’t think he was ever going to witness though, and the sight of Nico’s bloodied arm made him really wish he hadn’t.

The audience gasped loudly, but the two demigods kept fighting as if nothing had happened. Later, when it was Nico’s sword the one to cut Jason’s skin, another distressed gasp filled the room, along with the metallic smell of fresh blood.

That time too Harry could see that the injury wasn’t bad, but he couldn’t help feeling a bit uncomfortable. The wizard had to admit it was fairly shocking to see his two newly-made friends fighting each other that harshly, af if they were real enemies, or fighting for their lives. 

He really hoped the match was going to end soon, because as awesome as it had been to watch the two of them fight, he didn’t want Jason or Nico to get hurt any more than they already were.***

The harsh sounds of blades meeting intensified, and Harry saw Jason and Nico fighting once again to disarm the other. 

Jason charged Nico with his sword swung out. Nico started approaching him too, but at a slower pace, giving Jason the opportunity to go for his sword practically undisturbed.

As Jason prepared to lower his sword onto Nico’s though, the same split of darkness from when Nico had taken his sword before reappeared, and Nico disappeared into it.

Before the audience could even react though, the split appeared right behind Jason, and Nico came flying out of it.

Sword in his right hand, Nico took advantage of Jason’s confusion to knock him down on the floor with his weight. With the loss of balance, Jason lost his tight grasp on his sword, which flyed out of his hand and met the hard floor with a loud tinkling sound.

The students cheered for Nico, still on top of Jason’s back, but all the screams of joy cessed the second Will started screaming at him.

“Shadow travel Nico, really?! And while injured! What were you thinking, Nico!” yelled the boy in absolute rage, looking ready to fulminate him with the sheer power of the rage and worry in his eyes. 

Nico smiled at him slightly, looking sincerely apologetic, and opened his mouth to explain, but Will didn’t let him.

Instead, the blond demigod swiftly got on the stage to check his and Jason’s injuries. He took Nico’s arm in his hands and started singing a healing chant in a low voice. As the words of the song came flooding out his mouth, the wound started glowing and sealing itself, stitching the skin back to how it had been before the encounter, without leaving any sort of scar.

He did the same to Jason’s leg, not paying attention to the awed murmurs of the students around him, and in no time both Nico and Jason were fine again.

Harry glanced at Draco, still by his side. The Slytherin was looking at Will in awe, his eyes full of wonder. Harry saw a fire lighting them, the same fire he was able to see every time Draco started talking about healing.

It was his ambition, his pride, his dream of becoming a healer not because of his name or his money, but because he deserved it, and had worked hard for it.

Harry remembered that Draco had seemed insanely jealous the day Will had told them about his gift. He remembered hoping that the feeling wouldn’t stop Draco from befriending Will, but he had found there was no need for hoping. 

Draco in fact had pushed that bit of jealousy deep down and hadn’t let it resurface again. Instead, he had used that feeling as a catalyst. He would remember the ease at which Will could cure wounds, and get the motivation necessary to keep pushing, keep studying, with the goal of becoming the best healer he could become always in mind.

Harry hadn’t told him so, the day Draco had decided to tell him all of that, but he was insanely proud of him. The old Draco would have stood there complaining and swimming in hatred and jealousy for a far longer time than he had, and would have hurt countless people and himself before realising he could use his feelings as motivation.

The way he had matured over the course of the years, especially the past year, showed just how much effort Draco was putting in becoming a better person and detach himself from his father’s ideals.

As lost in thought as he was, watching Draco’s ambitious gray eyes, he didn’t notice that Theodore Nott was quickly approaching them until it was too late. 

The curly haired boy stopped and greeted Draco with a big smile, his brown curls bouncing slightly, and Harry felt an unexpected wave of annoyance washing over him.

Draco, who had been too focused on Will to notice the Slytherin, at the sound of Nott’s voice light up like a literal Christmas tree, and merrily turned his head towards him to greet him back.

“The duel was insane, right?!” said Nott all excited, without even acknowledging Harry, who was growing more annoyed each second that passed. What was he, a wax statue?!

Draco laughed slightly at Nott’s words, and Harry felt his heart fall down his chest. How could his friend laugh with someone who didn’t even care to greet him?

“Hi to you too, Nott” intruded Harry, forcing a tight smile. He knew he was being ridiculous, but he honestly didn’t care. If Nott wanted to flirt with Draco, at least he could learn to be nice to his friends.

Nott seemed surprised at the sound of his voice, and Harry found himself getting even angrier. 

The boy put a hand through his curls. “I’m sorry Harry, I didn’t see you. Hi to you, too. Did you enjoy the match?” said he, directing a small smile at him, but Harry wouldn’t fall for it.

_You don’t even notice me standing beside Draco, and now you want to act like you’re my friend? Like hell._

Harry didn’t smile back, but decided to answer him. _I’m not the rude one, after all_. “Yeah, it was fun. As fun as it can be to watch two of your friends bleed, anyway”.

Nott looked down at that, clearly ashamed, looking ready to apologise for the question.

 _As he should_ , supplied Harry’s brain.

Draco though, spoke first. “Don’t worry Theo, it’s not like they killed each other or something”. Harry saw Draco send him an irritated look, but before he could do something about it, Draco turned again and asked Nott something about Herbology class that Harry didn’t really care about.

Why had Draco sent him that glance? Was he mad at him? Why was he mad at him?

Harry didn’t understand what was going on. The only thing he knew, standing next to Draco and Theodore Nott talking and laughing in the crowded Duelling room, was that he wanted nothing to do with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since this is chapter six and I'm a slut for SIX - the Musical, may I present you: our Golden and Silver Trios as the Queens of SIX!!
> 
> Harry Potter as Queen Catherine of Aragon  
> Pansy Parkinson as Queen Anne Boleyn  
> Ron Weasley as Queen Jane Seymour  
> Blaise Zabini as Queen Anne of Cleves  
> Draco Malfoy as Queen Katherine Howard  
> Hermione Granger as Queen Catherine Parr
> 
> Also, I spent half an hour trying to remember how the Duelling Club Room was supposed to look like, only to remember I have the Chamber of Secrets (the 20th anniversary Slytherin edition, I absolutely love it) and I could have just read it. Lol.


	7. Dilemme

Chapter Seven

Dilemme

⸙

“And you won’t believe what happened next!”.

The clear sound of Draco’s laughter filled the empty corridor for what seemed like the thousandth time that day, echoing through the high stone ceiling.

The wizards and the witches inside of the paintings hanging on the walls turned up their noses as they passed. They were clearly annoyed about all the noise they were making, but Harry couldn’t care less about them. He kept strolling down the long corridor, and ignored every single painting, completely captured instead by the soft gleam of Draco’s smiley face.

_Thank Godric it’s back._

Two days after the first meeting of the Duelling Club, Draco had received a letter. Normally, that wouldn’t have been a big deal, since everyone at school knew just how much Narcissa Malfoy loved to spoil her son, sending him letters and sweets almost every week since their first year at school. 

Knowing that, Harry hadn’t been surprised to see an owl fly across the room to Draco’s direction, holding a white envelope in its claws. 

Actually, he had been so unimpressed by the whole thing that he simply turned his head back to the rest of his friends at the Gryffindor table, and kept eating his breakfast. After Frank had finished his story about Venice and an horde of green cow-like monsters, he sent a quick glance at the Slytherin table to find that Draco’s place was empty.

Pansy, Blaise and Piper were still there at the Slytherin table, sharing mildly concerned gazes that confirmed that something was definitely _not_ right. Harry saw Pansy getting up and leaving the Hall in a hurry, followed closely by Blaise, but Piper stayed at her seat, taking a sip of tea like nothing had happened. 

She looked around the Hall, carefully making sure that nobody had noticed what had happened, and then locked eyes with him. She subtly tilted her head to the direction of the door, sending him a meaningful glance. _Go, but don’t rush out. Wait._

Harry had nodded slightly, to make sure she knew he’d understood, and Piper had then broken eye contact and turned to her breakfast, seemingly unfazed.

Even though he had just promised to wait before following Pansy and Blaise, Harry already felt like combusting. He tried to focus on something else, moving his gaze from table to table, but seeing the smiles on the other students faces was just making him more and more annoyed. He nervously glanced at the door, and time had never seemed to pass slower. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Harry told his friends he was leaving and hastily fled the room, hoping he’d be able to find the Slytherins. 

“He received a letter from his father,” was the only thing Blaise said to him when he had finally found him, in an alley near the Slytherin dungeons. He had felt his blood boiling in his veins, the unpleasant feeling of hot rage churning his intestines, mixed up with worry and dread.

Blaise had looked just as enraged as Harry was feeling, and that had felt somehow relieving, in a twisted way. It felt somehow comforting, knowing that there were other people who would gladly help him beat Lucius Malfoy’s ass.

Blaise passed a hand through his hair and huffed soundly, despaired. “He’s in our dorm room, and doesn’t want to come out. Pansy’s trying to talk to him, but she already knows there’s no way in hell she’s gonna get him to leave the room”.

Obviously, Blaise had been right. Draco had not showed up in any of his classes that day, not even for lunch and dinner, and hadn’t let anyone in. In the end, he had obviously been forced to anyway, but that didn’t mean that he was willing to talk about the letter.

The next day, Harry entered the great Hall for breakfast and found Draco sitting at his usual place at the Slytherin table. It had seemed like a hallucination, something along the lines of a fever dream. Draco looked just like he did every other day: collected, some would say even bored, he sipped his earl gray as he glanced at the news on the front page of the _Prophet_.

He was surely managing to fool the rest of the school, but Harry wasn’t stupid. He knew Draco. He liked to appear untouchable, cold, distant, and even though it was all a farce, he was willing to do anything to keep that image intact. And that apparently included refusing to even acknowledge the fact that he was hurting.

Seeing Draco like that made Harry absolutely mad. He wanted to shake him, to force him to talk, but he knew Draco didn’t work like that. He knew that he needed to give him time.

But it was oh, so difficult to just watch one of his best friends hurting, on his own. The two weeks that had followed that day had been just that: Draco not willing to get any kind of help, pretending that letter hadn’t even existed in the first place.

And he knew it was a whole new level of hypocrisy for him to get mad about it, since he was the first to never open up with anybody when he was hurting, but it just felt different, from an outsider perspective. It felt wrong.

So, he had spent those two weeks trying to do the impossible: helping someone who didn’t even want his help. Along with the rest of his friends, he had done all that was in his power to try to cheer Draco up... which was just a rather dramatic way of saying he had almost finished his repertoire of funny anecdotes, in the hope that Draco would somehow get out of his listless state.

As he was starting to lose hope though, that day’s silly story had miraculously managed to put a smile on Draco’s sad face, and Harry finally felt he was doing something right. 

With his Herbology books pressed firmly to his chest, neck thrown back and a radiant, toothy smile on, Draco looked somewhat happy again, and as Harry noticed the rosy pink colour on Draco’s cheeks, he felt his chest filling with something that felt warm, and soothing.

So he kept telling Draco the story of Sirius using a muggle hoover for the first time, pausing each time Draco went through another fit of laughter. 

“And then, then he accidentally passed it over Kreacher’s foot, and--”.

He didn’t have the time to finish his sentence though, since apparently the universe had decided that making Draco laugh like mad after two weeks of apathy was enough success for one day. 

“Hello guys!”.

Draco abruptly stopped laughing and straightened himself up, instantly putting his cold mask of indifference back up. Just the sight of Draco’s swift change would have been enough for Harry to start screaming in frustration, but as he turned around to see who had interrupted them, a second wave of annoyance came crushing over him, almost as strong as the first.

_Theodore Nott. Obviously, it had to be Theodore Nott._

As if that weren’t enough, other than Draco being reduced to a pitiful state by his asshole of a father, during the first two weeks of October Theodore Nott and Draco had started hanging out way more than they ever did before.

 _“He needs more tutoring”_ , had said Draco when Ron had inquired about the strangely multiplying number of their study meetings. Ron though had looked rather skeptical at the explanation, and Harry had too, secretly happy he wasn't the only one who thought something was wrong with thw whole Nott situation. 

Nott had always been very good at Potions. There was no way he couldn’t get over whichever doubts he had on his own. So why did he claim he needed Draco?

“Hi Theo”, replied Draco from beside him, and Harry came back to reality. He simply nodded at Nott’s direction, who sent him a wacky smile in return.

_Please, please turn away. Please say you just wanted to say hi, please._

“I saw you two laughing like mad before! Mind if I walk with you?” said the Slytherin instead, smiling widely and already walking up to Draco, who just put on a tight, polite smile and let them smoothly further down the corridor.

Harry groaned quietly, and forced himself to move, reaching Draco’s other side. 

Moments like those were the only moments in which Harry genuinely missed Old Draco. Because Old Draco would have literally destroyed anyone who would’ve had the courage to intrude in one of his conversations that way. Because instead of that fake, compliant smile, he would have smirked and sneered and raised his voice, do whatever he wanted.

It certainly wasn’t nice, and sometimes it could be cruel, but it was Draco. Genuine Draco.

Ever since his father had been proven guilty at the trial, Draco had wanted to change. And he had changed for the best, that was for sure. There were certain moments though, in which Harry couldn’t help but think that maybe there was something worth keeping from Old Draco’s “holier-than-thou” attitude.

“Oh, that was just Harry telling me a story,” replied Draco, his cheeks still a bit pink from all the laughing. Nott’s eyes then went flying over him, as if studying him, and Harry couldn’t help but frown a little, instantly disliking the sudden scrutinization. 

Nott evidently caught on what he was doing, since he abruptly averted his gaze and muttered something about hilarious stories. Draco and him kept conversing quietly during the course of the whole walk to the greenhouses, but Harry decided not to say a word and limit himself to little nods and awkward laughs, mainly to preserve whatever was left of his mental sanity.

As they reached the entrance of the castle, Nott suddenly stopped walking. 

“I’m afraid I have to leave you now. Get to where I actually needed to go, you know,” said he sheepishly, passing a hand through his hair awkwardly.

And after having spent a whole ten minutes frowning and trying not to grumble too loudly, all Harry could think was _fucking finally_. 

Draco made a scene of being saddened that he had to go, or at least Harry thought so, and Nott just laughed quietly, staring directly into Draco’s eyes with an expression Harry wasn’t really able to read.

_Why does he stare at him like that?_

“Maybe then we could do this another time.. What do you think?” said the Slytherin, his gaze still focused on Draco’s figure, and even though Harry couldn’t say he knew what it meant, he definitely knew he didn’t like it at all.

So, as he did every other time that he felt overwhelmed with seemingly no reason, Harry followed his instinct. 

He gently wrapped his arm over Draco’s shoulders and turned to Nott, saying: “Oh yeah sure, that was nice. But we’re late for class, we should go now.”

And then he just walked away, out of the castle, not even turning to see Nott’s face or give him time to answer. He led them to the greenhouses, his arm now grabbing Draco’s left one, and rationally speaking, Harry knew what he had done had been a little shitty. But he simply couldn’t find himself to care.

Especially because Draco had started laughing again, carefree, rosy cheeked, just as he had been before. As they sprinted through the students standing right outside the castle, Harry felt Draco’s hand clutching his arm, and he couldn’t remember another time a simple action like that had made him feel so warm.

⸙⸙

“ _Dios mìo_ guys, look at them” said Leo exasperated, scrunched all over his History of Magic notes, his fingers tangled through his uncontrollable mass of unruly curly hair.

From the seat beside him, Calypso took a deep breath and tried her best not to snap at him on the spot out of pure irritation.

She tore her eyes away from her DADA essay and looked around, searching for whatever had caught Leo’s attention. Carefully following Leo’s gaze, Calypso couldn’t help but smile in sympathy as her eyes stopped on the image of Harry, sitting on the table right next to theirs, absentmindedly chewing on a white quill while openly staring at Draco with adoring eyes.

Incredibly enough, even though Harry wasn’t exactly being subtle with his staring, Draco didn’t seem to have noticed a thing. He was simply comparing Arithmancy notes with Nico, gaze cast downwards on the parchment, absent-mindedly fidgeting with the silver quill in his right hand.

Seeing Harry and Draco constantly dancing around each other was already quite comical on its own, but seeing just how obvious the two of them could get without getting as much as a hint made the sight in front of her simply hilarious. 

She rolled her eyes and let out an uffed laugh, gently knocking her elbow on Leo’s shoulder to get his attention. 

“If you’re talking about Harry and Draco, then you’re perfectly right. They’re completely clueless”. 

Leo turned to her and snickered quietly, trying to muffle out his laugh as best as he could. His eyes shining bright with delight, and Calypso felt her insides melt a bit, staring into those gorgeous brown eyes.

She noticed with the corner of her eye that Hazel was sending them a questioning look, and Calypso discreetly tilted her head over where Harry and Draco were seated, silently urging the Praetors to look over. Hazel and Frank then drop their own assignments and curiously scanned over the table next to them, to see what they were talking about. 

“They’re obvious… painfully obvious,” she heard Hazel say, and really, there was no way one could ever deny it.

Before any of them could comment any further, Frank smirked and gestured for them to look over the library’s entrance, his arms crossed over his chest. 

“Talking about obvious people...”. 

Calypso hastily turned over the entrance’s direction and saw Jason and Piper walking through the mahogany door. The two of them were walking slowly, like they didn’t have a care in the world. Jason was saying something to Piper, gesticulating wildly as he always did when he talked about something he was passionate about, and Piper just listened to him talk with a soft smile and gleaming eyes, completely focused on him as he was on her.

Leo let out a loud groan that nearly caused them to get scolded by Madam Pince, and rolled his eyes hard. 

“Jesus, don’t make me start on them. Just to be sure, I’m not the only one at this table who thinks this ‘just friends’ shit has gone too far, right?”.

Hazel snickered quietly, slowly shaking her head. “Oh no, not at all. I mean, I’m glad they decided to end their relationship in the first place because, well, it was very much needed.” The rest of them silently nodded in agreement, remembering how difficult those first weeks after the end of the war had been on Jason and Piper. 

“But you didn’t think it would have lasted this long, just like the rest of us,” finished Leo, exasperated, as he threw another look at their two friends. They were now standing in a narrow aisle, still talking to each other and pretty much not caring about the rest of the world. They looked as if they were in their own private bubble, and everyone could see how in love they looked.

Calypso felt her eyes soften at the sight, but the sweet sight didn’t stop her from noticing how comically whipped those two were for one another. 

“They didn’t even notice we’re here. Actually, I don’t think they’ve paid attention to anything other than one another ever since they’ve entered the room,” said her in fact, shaking her head in disbelief.

“And yet, they’re too blind to see they should just cut it and get back together.” 

“I don’t believe they’re ever going to get there if we don’t help them a bit,” said Frank, his Potions essay laying in front of him long forgotten, slowly getting mixed up with the rest of their assignments.  
Seeing the pile of parchment crowding their table without any sort of control reminded Calypso that they were supposed to be studying, and not gossiping over their friends, but she decided to say nothing about it. 

Afterall it was just a little pause. She let go of her pen, careful not to make too much noise, and simply savoured the moment of calm.

⸙⸙⸙

A day around the second half of October, Dumbledore had announced the date of the first Hogsmeade trip of the year. 

Needless to say, ever since that morning the entire student population of Hogwarts seemed restless: little groups of friends animatedly making plans down the hallways, third years with gleaming smiles, anxious boys wandering through the alleys searching for the courage to ask out the girls they liked.

It was the normal atmosphere of the week before Hogsmeade, and as annoying as it would eventually get, Blaise couldn’t help but think of it as endearing.

The castle felt happier those times of the year, as if the stone walls had the power to not only reflect, but also amplify the excitement lingering in the air.

It warmed his heart a bit, to think of it like that. Which proved just how much bad having a crush was doing to him.

His mother always liked to remind him that becoming a romantic would ruin his life irreparably. 

_“You must understand, tesoro, that once you start indulging in lovesick fantasies you’ll find it impossible to go back to rational thinking”._

_“As much as everyone around you tells you true love exists, figlio mio, the truth is that is nearly impossible to find. And consequentedly, stupid to research.”_

_“The moment you accept the only people who will ever truly love you are your family, you’ll understand how stupid fairytales are.”_

There was a time when he had believed anything his mother said blindly, and followed her directions to the letter. He had never questioned her once, intrigued by the aura of power and confidence she seemed to radiate. There was a time, when he thought that if he got rid of any feelings like she always said, maybe he would become as strong and powerful as she was. 

Now, he couldn’t help but hoping that maybe, just maybe, his mom might have been wrong.

Blaise closed his eyes and took a deep breath, stopping his brain from going any further down that rabbit hole. He didn’t want to think about it. Not when he was with his friends, having a good time.

He looked at his friends. They were all there, after a long day of school, gathered at their usual spot near the lake. The weather was definitely chillier than how it had been the first weeks of school, and it seemed like the sun had almost completely disappeared, but they didn’t mind.

“Okay, now that we’re alone,” said Draco, looking smugly at the rest of them. 

“Pansy and I have something to tell you.”

He glanced at Pansy, who was sitting beside him, with a strange giddy smile on. 

Looking rather smug herself, Pansy seemed to be literally vibrating with energy.

“You won’t believe what we’re going to tell you”, said she, sounding very much like an over-excited five year old.

The rest of his friends seemed quite surprised to see them behaving that way, and Blaise couldn’t really blame them. Pansy and Draco weren’t the kind of people to lose their composure in such a way, so he guessed that seeing them like that for the first time must be a sight to behold for the rest of their friends.

He unfortunately was already well acquainted with over-excited Pansy and over-excited Draco, and even though he loved seeing his friends so full of life and cheerful, he also knew they tended to get overbearingly irritating whenever they reached that level of excitement.

He also wasn't particularly surprised by their little show, because he already knew what they were so excited about. 

"What is it?", asked Hazel with a gentle smile, looking rather curious. Beside her, Frank was looking fondly at his two Slytherin friends, with a barely concealed smile on. Blaise figured he must have been thinking something along the lines of _"look at them, the excited little five year olds, they're adorable"_. 

_I agree Frank, I agree._

Probably realizing they were making a fool of themselves, Draco stood up a little bit straighter and cleared his throat, managing to suppress a little bit of excitement. Pansy, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind the fact that she looked like a 5 year old on a sugar high. 

"We just managed to bring back the most amazing of all old Slytherin traditions!" said she with a radiant smile. 

Blaise noticed the words had had mixed effects on his friends. 

On one hand, there was the group of demigods, who obviously didn't know a thing about Slytherin traditions, that looked curious about the news. Some of them were even starting to get giddy, probably thanks to his friends' contagious excitement. 

And then, there was the Golden Trio.   
If Blaise would have had to use just a single word to describe his friends' expressions at Pansy's words, "terror" would have been the perfect choice. 

He noticed that Ron, Harry and Hermione were sharing what looked like slightly concerned glaces, very clearly trying to look subtle (and failing exceptionally). Judging simply by the grimaces on Ron and Harry's faces, it was clear as day that they were trying to imagine what that "old Slytherin traditions" thing was about. 

They were probably thinking it had something to do with snakes, or abusing house elves, or maybe the blood of poor innocent creatures of the forest, and while it sort of saddened him that his friends might think of something like that, Blaise couldn't really blame them for feeling unnerved at the prospect of some old tradition of Slytherin House being renewed. 

Everyone knew Slytherin had the reputation it had for a reason, and every Slytherin knew being in their house came with rumors and judgment. Still, could they be this much idiotic to think that Pansy and Draco could be so excited about anything gruesome or cruel?

"And.. What is it?" had said Ron warily.

Blaise had felt his stupid heart skip a beat at the sound of the redhead voice, just like every other time the boy started talking. He determinately didn't let himself blush, even though he was fairly sure Ron wouldn't have been able to tell anyway, given that he was at a safe distance, and sighed. 

_It isn't fair._

Pansy's smile seemed to falter a bit at her friend's tone, but returned just as bright as before with the bat of an eye. 

"Oh cut it with that tone Weasley, it isn't anything evil. It is a Pureblood tradition, but you don't have to worry about your moral conduct getting corrupted", had said she with a playful tone, grinning at Draco. 

The blond boy looked just as amused as her by the Gryffindors' expressions. "Exactly, Weasley. Now, before you jump to other conclusions, tell us tell you all about the Ball". 

Blaise heard Harry chuckle softly, whispering something along the lines of _"Of course it's a Ball. Those posh bastards..."._

"Silence!" had called Pansy, getting everyone's attention on her. 

Once she made sure everybody was listening to her, she smoothened the folds of her skirt as she changed positions on the large towel she was sitting on, and started talking. 

"Before the first war against You-Know-Who, it was tradition in Slytherin that the Fifth year prefects organised a dance party the night of the first Hogsmeade trip" started recounting her, intently looking at the curious faces of her friends around her. 

"It was a Slytherin-only event which only the Fifths, Sixths and Sevenths years could attend. Nobody outside of our house knew anything about it, except from the Headmaster obviously. The year of the start of the first war, the climate wasn't really appropriate for a party, as I'm sure you can imagine, so it was decided to not host it. 

"Needless to say, people started to forget about it, and eventually everybody forgot it was a tradition in the first place". 

The Gryffindors looked speechless, and Blaise really couldn't help but feeling perplexed at his friends' reactions. Was it really that hard to imagine that the Slytherins used to throw parties back in the day? 

"And, that's when Pansy and I come into the picture" chimed in Draco. "My mother told me all about these parties, and we decided it is time to bring them back. Now that You-Know-Who is gone. We deserve a celebration, after everything that's happened". 

Pansy nodded. "Obviously, we're going to change some things. You know, to spice it up, refreshen it", said she gesticulating elegantly with her right hand, in a rather dramatic manner. 

"And what do you want to change?" asked Will, who looked genuinely happy at the prospect of a ball. 

Pansy smiled widely, and sent a flying kiss to Will. "I'm glad you asked, darling. The Balls thrown before the first war were very, _very_ formal. Like, excruciatingly so". 

Draco laughed and leaned a bit down, resting his elbows on his crossed legs. "Absolutely true. My mother told me they resembled the galas high wizarding society of the time used to have. Classical music, only one dance partner for the entire soirée, polite conversations…". 

The air filled with loud groans and annoyed huffs, and Blaise couldn't help but smirk. 

"Fret not my friends, we're going to change all of that", said Pansy with a little wicked smile. "Draco, darling, illustrate the plan". 

"Oh of course your highness", answered Draco, making a dramatically low bow in Pansy's direction. After all of their friends had stopped laughing at their little skit, Draco started talking. 

"Well, first of all, we want to open the Ball to the Fifths, Sixths, and Sevenths years of all Houses. The more the merrier, right?" chuckled he, and everyone agreed. 

After You-Know-You, what the Wizarding World needed was unity, and friendship, and the division between Houses at Hogwarts certainly didn't help the good intentions of overcoming stereotypes and making new friends. What better occasion than a party to start to reconnect? 

"We don't have a lot of space down in the common room though, so we necessarily must make the party invitation-only".

Hermione, who had looked radiant just a second before, frowned slightly at Draco's words. "Are you sure we really can't find space for all of us?". 

Pansy shook her head no, suddenly looking kind of pained at Hermione's words. 

"There are 20 students per year, so we calculated we should be 60 in total. Even if somebody decided not to go, we would still be too many for the common room", she explained Hermione, who looked pensive. The Gryffindor was clearly trying to think of a solution in order to include everyone, and Blaise could only admire her dedication. 

"Couldn't you throw the party in the Great Hall? There's space for everyone in there", said Calypso tentativately. 

Draco sighed slightly, and smoothened his hair in frustration. "We had thought about it too at first, but the Great Hall is too public. Students from lower years would surely try to enter, and I'm not dealing with fourteen year olds. Especially since we plan to make another little improvement". 

"What kind of improvement?" asked Nico then, sounding rather doubtful. 

"Well," hesitated Draco. "Alcohol". 

If Hermione had been drinking anything in that moment, she would have surely spat it out. Her eyes were so big and her highbrows so high one could think someone had just killed a kitten in front of her. 

"Alcohol?! Are you two insane?!". 

Draco huffed, sounding slightly annoyed. "Oh come on, don't look at me like that! I'm not saying we all have to get drunk, it's just another way to have fun". 

"Have fun? We're not even of age!". 

_Better intervene._ "Hermione, no one is forcing anyone to drink. We're not inviting the younger students exactly because we want people mature enough to decide for themselves".

Hermione didn't look much convinced though. She crossed her arms over her chest and sent the Slytherins one of her trademark glares, arching one of her dark eyebrows. 

She was just about to start talking again, when Will interrupted her. 

"Look, as a doctor I feel like I should be against this, but actually I am not. I don't see any problem in having a drink or two. Just as long as things don't get too much, obviously". 

The Gryffindor girl stayed silent, dumbfounded. She probably thought Will was going to back her up, but that didn't seem to be the case. 

Blaise could see she wanted to counter, but the rest of their friends seemed to agree with Draco and Will. Some of them were looking at each other and nodding their heads slowly, looking convinced and somewhat excited at the prospect of a party. 

In the end, Hermione begrudgingly decided to let the question go, not after making several ammonitions and complains that _"We're going to regret this, I just know it"_. 

Blaise could tell that even though Draco felt a bit bad about fighting with Granger for the first time after they had become friends, he was also feeling quite victorious. 

Draco didn't always get to win fights with Granger, or have it better than her in most subjects except Potions, so Blaise figured he was savouring the moment. The graceful smirk and that particular gleam in his friend's grey eyes certainly suggested as much. 

"Anyway, guys", sang Pansy, "We assure you we have lots of other ideas to modernise this Ball. We want to make this party the most amazing social gathering Hogwarts has ever seen". 

Ron laughed out loud at Pansy's statement, and Blaise pretended the sound of the boy's laugh didn't almost cause him a heart attack. "Wow, even more amazing than the Yule Ball last year? That's ambitious". 

Pansy looked exasperated at the redhead's words. "Well no, obviously, we don't plan on outdoing the Yule Ball, but you used the right word. Ambition. We've got lots of it, you know?" said she, smiling wickedly at her friend at the opposite side of the circle.

"And you can say whatever you want about Slytherins, but I can assure you we really are the best at throwing parties", added Pansy, raising her head higher to meet their friends' eyes. 

Blaise could tell that the dramatic tone she used had just raised the stakes higher. His friends, who he was certain already knew the party was going to be amazing, were now being led to expect something grand. He was also sure that Pansy and Draco, who lived to get that sort of attention, weren't going to let them down for anything in the world. 

"We still don't have a place where you can host it, though", reminded Piper. "It doesn't feel right to have an invitation-only party, especially if said party should be in the name of reconnecting and overcoming judgment". 

Piper, obviously, was right. Pansy seemed to deflate a bit at the demigod's words, but didn't look completely defeated. 

She looked determined to find a solution to that very first problem, but before she could start that second brainstorming session, the sound of Harry loudly smacking himself in the forehead made everyone turn to his side. 

"I'm an idiot. I should have thought about it before!" said he, eyes open wide and hand still firmly smacked in his forehead, covering his scar and half of his untamable curls. 

"Harry? Are you alright?" asked Draco, sounding a bit concerned at his friend's behaviour. 

Potter seemed to get out of his pensive state and smiled widely at the blonde, looking ecstatic. 

"Draco, do you remember that time I told you about the Chamber of Secrets?".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry.  
> Like, I really am.
> 
> But I finally managed to write this chapter!
> 
> I know this isn't an excuse, but lots of things happened. After a spiritual crisis, a conversion to another religion, an almost coming out to my mom that ended in disaster (lots fo crying involved lol), the realization that i don't have any real friends, two weeks spent believing the only person who could even qualify for the title of friend was mad at me, the realization that maybe i'm a little depressed (maybe?? I haven't seen a specialist or shit so i really can't be sure), and the emotional rollercoaster that is school, I really didn't feel like writing.  
> At all.  
> I can't promise you there's going to be an eighth chapter. But seeing this chapter, half-finished, sitting in my Google docs was making me mad.  
> I'm sorry.


End file.
